PATRICIANS IN INDIA

Christianity in India may date from apostolic times, and the tomb of St. Thomas, Apostle, is

honoured at Mylapore. Shipping contacts between Rome and India already existed and

considerable Christian communities were found long the southern coast from ancient times.

Missionary contracts continued through the middle ages, and especially after the early sixteenth

century. In 1835 the Rt. Rev. Daniel O'Connor OSA took charge of the newly-created Apostolic

Prefecture of Madras and was succeeded three years later by Dr. Patrick Carew. The

Maynooth Mission to Madras was the direct rulust and when the Rev. John Fennelly went out in

1839, he took with him the Rev. Godfrey Mitchell, a founding member of the Aloysian society at

Galway. John's bro, Bishop Stephen Fennelly brought the Patrican Brothers to Madras in 1875.

Both were uncles of Bro Vincent Laffan of Mountrath (1857-1917)

On 7th September 1875 Bros. Ignatius Price, Paul Hughes and fintan Parkinson left Mountrath to

conduct an orphangage at Condichetty Stgreet in Madras. Founded as a military oprhanage for

boys the institution had since opened it boors to the children of the civilian population. For two

years Cathedral House supplied the Brothers' domestic needs, then from January 1878 paid

them one hundred and fifty uprees a month, increased in September to two hundred when paul

Hughes replaced Ignatius as superior, The 1881 report of the Director of Public Instruction

describes the school as very satisfactory, to which the bishop added the comment:

It must necessarily be so, for the Brothers devote themselves with zeal and ardour to the work,

if any fault is to be found, it is that they are too often regardless of their own health and strength

in the promotion of the health of those in their care."

In 1883 Bishop Joseph Colgan, sent Paul to collect founds in Europe for orphanage and

diocese, giving him also a letter to the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda supporting" the

great desire of the Brothers of St. Patrick that their Order be confirmed." In his absence the

community was reinforced by the arrival of Baptist Ennis and Bernard Delany. State support for

the orphanage was a small military grant for the children of soldiers and a civil subsidy which, at

all times inadequate, was reduced in 1884 to three rupees and two annas per month, or half the

estimated cost of feeding each child. Otherwise the institution depended on alms and the

kindness of the bishop.

In mid-1884 Ignatius was released for Austrialia and was rephaced by twenty-one year old

Michael English. In October Bro. John Maher, bound for Australia and ill with tuberculosis, was

brought from Colombo to live out the remainder of a young life at Madras, dying there on 5 th

January 1885, the first Patrician to rest in Indian soil. In February Paul was re-elected superior

and at his request the bishop again wrote to Rome supporting the Brothers' petition for

approbation. In July the orphanage moved to Elphinstone Park. a two-storey residence on 150

acres at the Adyar, purchased by Bishop Colgan for 20,000 rupees. Besides the greatly

improved satiation there was now scope for industrial training, and in 1886 woodwork, shoe-

making and tailoring were introduced, There were then 170 boys in the institution. It was at his

stage that the bishop yielded to Paul's entreaty for permission to enter the Order of Friars

Capuchin, a life which had attracted him even before his European fund-raising tour. Madras

became a metropolitan see in 1886 and in a letter of 13 th December 1887 Archbishop Colgan

wrote that the orphanage was sadly in need of help and the Brothers burdened with work far

beyond their capacities.

The Institute in Ireland and Madras received pap[al approbation in 1888 and among the first

acts of the General Council was the assignment of Aloysius Hogan and Malachy Haverty to

Adyar, the first-named as superior. The two introduced new trades to the technical department

and formed a boys' band in 1889. The musical training thus received earned admission for

many boys to the bands of army regiments. Pupils qualified for posts in the public services

notably in the Telegraph Department. The farm was successfully Operated and was a frequent

prize-winner at the Exhibitions run by the Horticultural Society. As a highly-qualified teacher

conversant with the National School System in Ireland Aloysius arranged for payment of

Brothers holding Irish Qualifications; a third class certificate brought recognition as a primary

teacher, a first class was the equivalent of an M.A. in 1889 James Donovan and Austin Smith

entered the Congregation at Adyar, both had been members of the Brothers of St. Joseph at

Bangalore. When the first Superior General visited in 1891 he approved the taking over of St.

Joseph's College at Coonoor and appointed Aloysius as Head Superior in India, Placing Baptist

Ennis in charge at St. Patrick's . The Adyar Orphanage Cabet Corps established that year

proved itself particularly efficient and received high praise from military officers, but oddly the

army refused to admit the institution's claim for support on behalf of the children of Catholic and

Irish soldiers.

Aloysius represented India at the First General Chapter of the Congregation. Main items on its

agenda were application for final approbation and the election of a new Regime. The Chapter

opened at Kingston, Galway, on 19th July 1892 and spent about a month on the first task. In

October Aloysius returned to India, accompanied by Bros. Malachy Carew, Alysius Ryan and

young Mr. Potter, a postulant. An account of their arrival at Coonoor appeared in the Irish

Catholic and was copied by The Nationalist & Leinster Times of 31st December. Though he had

as yet made only triennial vows Malachy was palced in charge on the new institution. A few

months later Bishop Bardeau described him and his companions as conscientious, hard-

working and devoted to their duties. In the course of 1893 the Rev. James Doogan on behalf of

the Archbishop of Agra Urgently sought Brothers for two establishment at Mussoorie and while

Aloysius was en route to Ireland sent letters after him entreating a vavourable reply , even

enclosing a code for use by telegraph.

Following the Decree of Final Approbation, issued on 8th September 1893, Chapter met

again and in the course of a week completed its business. Under Bro. Anthony O' Neill as

Superior General the Regime made mine appointments for India, so that Aloysius sailed on 9 th

November as first Provincial of a newlycontituted Province with eight new subjects. Because

Archbishop Colgan wished to have Brothers to staff his Diocesan Seminary, two of the

newcomers, Fintan O'Neill and Peter Gaynor, were intended for that institution. Four, Augustine

Stapletion and Laurence Forde, experienced men, with younger confreres, Jerome Byrne and

Thomas Burke, went to Mussoorie. Two postulants, MATHEW Byrne and Patrick Curley

completed the party. Bro. Malachy Haverty was then in charge at Adyar.

On arrival at Madras Finatan and Peter were appalled at the provision made for them at the

Seminary:" One solitary room. School halls and all else about the College re-opened on 15 th

Nauary 1894 with Fintan in charge, assisted by Peter Gaynor and Aloysius Ryan. Relations with

the archbishop proved difficult and Aloysius ayan. Relations with the archbishop proved difficult

and Fintan left St. Mary's soon after the Michaelmas vacation. In 1895 Bro. Anthony O'Neill

made visitation and on his return to Ireland sent out Dominic Slattery and Eugene Phelan, at the

same time moving Aloysius Ryan from Madras to Australia. In December 1896 the Brothers

sought a written agreement but when the Diocesan Council insisted that a priest take charge the

Brothers withdrew from St. Mary's, each side feeling aggrieved.

On arrival at Mussoorie in December 1893 Aloysius and his party were surprised to find that the

Capuchin community in charge at St. Fidelio' Orphanage wished to retain management. The

bishop appealed to Rome and the change was effected in March 1894. A request that the

Brothers drop the use of religious names is said to have led to the custom by which Irish-born

Brothers of the Province came to be referred to by surname–a usage traditionally deplored in

Ireland. Bros. Augustine Stapleton, Laurence Forde, Bernard Delany (Coonoor) and Fintan

O'Neill (Adyar) constituted the first community at St. George's while Bro. Jerome Byrne became

Superio at St. Fidelis on the change over .

The Provincial's health deteriorated from the time of his return to India, his asthma growing so

severe that he was forced to take his highly rest in an armchair. In February 1896, just when his

condition was at its worst, a telegram summoned him to meet the Apostolic Delegate at

Mussoorie in connection with Capuchin property there. His friend Archbishop Colgan advised

against travel and offered to explain matters to Monsignor Zaleski, but Aloysius departed at

once and without the warmer clothing needed for the higher altitudes. He reached Mussoorie on

21st February, concluded his business with the Delegate, became ill that night and died on the

college veranda, apparently while attempting to reach the superior's room. He was fifty-two

years old. The Capuchin Friars kindly insisted on interring his remains in their chapel. Bro.

Malachy Barr, third Assistant General, was sent out from Ireland as Acting Provincial. With him

came Bro. Francis Byrne from Mallow, holder of two university degrees, and originally intended

for St. Mary's. Madras.

New Provincial appointments followed in September 1897. Ignatius Price, newly returned from

Australia, became Provincial, with assistants Malachy Haverty, Jerome Byrne, Malachy Carew

and Bernard Delany. Laurence Forde went from St. George's to Adyar as superior, After five

years of work at Coonoor Malachy Carew was brought to death's door by enteric fever after

which on medical. advice he returned to Ireland in April 1898 in company with Malachy Barr.

The next year, the Archbishop of Agra protested to the Superior General at the lack of higher

academic qualifications amongh the Brothers at St. George's, Bro. Anthony's reply reflected

conditions in the Irish Church–"for reasons originating in the importance of religious discipline,

we are not disposed to allow our Brothers to take degrees." Trinity College was a Protestant

institution, the Queen's Colleges were forbidden to Catholics, lack of a charter condemned the

Catholic University to failure, and third level education contined to be a bone of contention

between Irish bishops and the government.

Malachy Carew was the Indian delegate at the Second General Chapter,after which he was

appointed Superior at Mallow, Dominic Slattery Taking the vacant place on the Provincial

Council, and Benedict Halligan and Columba Spain going out for the first time. In April 1902

Bernard Delany returned from a boliday in Ireland, bringing with him three temporary professed,

two of whom were to spend each a half –century on the subcontinent. The three were Louis

Dineen, Ignatius Smyth and Serious Bergin. The following year Lewis Carberry entered, a wee

educated, cultured gentleman, aged 44. After some years under temporary vows he began to

show signs of mental instability, but was able to work in a variety of capacities, making himself

very useful for long periods together. The early years of the 20th century were times of

stringency at Adyar. State grants were reduced to a fraction of what they had been and

admissions rose so that Bros. Prince and Curly struggled to keep the institution afloat. During

this time the boys' band was revived, becoming a military band so that the Madras Governor's

Band later came to be recruited largely from St. Patrick's. Diocesan funds were low and at least

once the archbishop had to ask that the Brothers pay the annual rent on the property. In 1904

poor health forced Dominic Slattery, community superior and the school's most prominent

teacher, to return to Ireland.

Next year the Brothers petitioned the Archdiocese of Ara for permanency in the management of

the two institutions at Mussoorie, asking also for assurance of compensation in respect of funds

spent on the properties and for more free access to the College estate, The archiocesan council

acceded to all requests under conditions, but also stressed the prohibition on secular teachers

in these institutions and asked that the lay staff "Now teaching in the said schools be replaced

by the same number of Patrician Brothers." In 1906 Benedict Halligan left Coonoor in broken

health and Columba Spain also departed for a milder clime. The same year brought out Bros.

Liguouri Harmon, Adrian Keogh and Mathew Gaynor.

The Third General Chapter opened on 8th January 1906 and chose Bro. Jerome Byrne, one of

the Indian delegates, as Superior General. Lawrence Forde was re-appointed Provincial with

Bernard Delany, Ignatius Price, Eugene Phelan and Mathew Gaynor constituting his Council. In

April Bro. Forde returned accompanied by Bro. Michael Ryan and postulant Joe O,Brien, later

Bro. Patrick. Bodycot's Guide to Mussoorie, published in 1907, described the Patrician schools

in detail. "Situated on the broad flat top of Manor House hill" St. Geroge's was conducted "after

the best models of the English Public School System." Its Primary Department for boys from 5

to 12 years of age had its own dormitory, Playground and dining-room and operated under the

care of a Matron. The School Department for boys from Fifth to Eighth Standard inclusive had

its own dormitory and dining room and was under the constant care of the professions, for the

public service and the Universities, had separate quarters and one of the Brothers resided with

them. Bro. Forde was Principal. Bro. Dineen as Head of thw School Department had the

assistance of three Brothers and five lay teachers. St. Fidelis' High School and Military

Orphanage had been enlarged by the addition of dormitory and classroom accommodation and

a modern study hall at a cost of Rs. 22, 000. There were then 150, boys, forty of whom were

orphans, sixty semi-orphans, and the remainder boarders. Pupils were prepared for the Upper

Subordinate Departments, Roorkee Scholarships, the Provincial Surey, the Forest Accounts,

the Medical Departments and for the High, Middle and Primary Examinations of the European

Code in the United Provinces. There were splendid grounds for cricket, hockey and football,

tennis courts, a large gymnasium and a play-shed for the rins. An The Congregation’s

Centenary Year, 1908, brought Conleth Downs, Macartan Keegan and Mark Lee to India and

Mussoorie, their coming grant –aided by the Paris Office of the Work for the Propagation of the

Faith. India contributed 100 to a special collection for the Irish novitiate. The administration

appointed in 1909 showed just one change, Adrain Mulcahy replacing Ignatius Price on the

Council. Adrain had been in India from 1895, having travelled out at his own expense at the age

of thirty-six in order to join the Congregation in that Province. Just fifteen months later Provincial

and Council sent a strongly-worded letter to the Superior General citing the Rule’s directives on

the staffing of the schools and current State requirements and declaring the present position

untenable. Adyar had 130 boys, but of the five resident Brothers three were incapacitated by

age and illness, leaving only Serenus Bergin and Sebastian Potter, to run school and

orphanage. Coonoor had 120 pupils, James Donovan was superannuated, Patrick O’Brien in

poor health and the Provincial in class all day while also acting as superior. Without an increase

in the number of qualified Brothers closures must follow. In reply Ireland supplied two Brothers;

closures must follow. In reply Ireland supplied two Brothers; Aidan Doyle aged 32, and Enda

Concannon, a scholastic.

Bro. Austin Smith died at Adyar on 17th November 1910, having served there since 1881. To

mark the 25th anniversary of the Orphanage’s move from Madras Bro. Serenus Bergin decided

to relieve existing cramped conditions. Archbishop John Aelen guaranteed one third of the

estimated cost and there was hope of a large Government grant. Negotiations stalled, and it

was 1913 before building began. The estimated cost was more than once revised upward and

when on St. Patrick’s Day 1915 the Sillver Jubilee Extension was opened outlay stood at Rs.

81,800 with a further Rs. 11,000 needed for a water supply and fitting. The building, a fine three-

storey structure, gave much-needed accommodation, with classrooms on the ground floor and

spacious, airy dormitories above. Government aid came to Rs. 47,500 and the archdiocese

provided Rs. 8,000.

The terms of the protest sent to the Superior General in 1910 makes it surprising that less than

a year later the Provincial Council should propose a new foundation, even with the coming of

four new men from Ireland. In August 1911 Bros. Gabriel O’ Farrell, Stanislaus Martin Bergin,

Regis O’Connell and Leonard Grincell arrived. Of these the last named was appointed to St.

Fidelis’, and the others with Mathew Gaynor took over St. Anthony’s High School at Lahore in

the Punjab. Monastery and school for ninety pupils was a bungalow to which extensions were

added as need arose. In 1911 the Province came to the aid of the Regime, sending in all 350,

including 50 for the improvement of sanitary facilities at the Novititate. Its delegates to the 4 th

General Chapter in December were Lawrence Forde and Bernard Delany.

Four Brothers arrived from Ireland in June 1992, Donal Delany and Andrew Keating, King’s

Scholars both, Virgilius O’Connell and Bonaventure Logue, unqualified. An agreed exchange

brought Colman Keenehan to India and sent Augustine Curley to Australia. However, the

departures of Eugene Haverty and Sebastain Potter weakened the effect of the increase in

manpower. In September Gabriel O’ Farrel became superior at Coonoor. The Archbishop of

Agra having expressed his disapproval of the Brothers’ participation in football and hockey

tournaments the Provincial imposed a formal ban which caused great dissatisfaction, especially

at St. Geroge’s. In 1913 opposition to the sports ban combined with other sources of discontent

to bring about the dispatch of a memorial to the Superior General seeking the removal of the

Provincial and a change in the method by which the administration was appointed. Twelve

Brothers supported the memorial in full, two with reservations and six disagreed. Support was

strongest at Mussoorie and Lahore with eleven out of a possible fourteen. At Coonoor only one

of the five Brothers was in favour. At Adyar Serenus Bergin and Liguori Hrmon stated that they

were completely uniformed as to the causes of discontent. The memorial was dispatched to

Tullow on 10th September 1913. On the 30th October the Superior General Directed that each

professed Brother report to him on the general position and clarify, if able, certain points in the

memorial, Earlier the same month the Provincial submitted an unfavorable report on the two

mussoorie communities.

On 4th January 1914 Bro. Louis was to be “called before the Council, receive a servere

reprimand and be divested of his smoking apparatus.” In the early days of February Malachy

Carew, 2nd Assistant General, left for India “to investigate complaints received” and Patrick O’

Brien retuned from that Province in broken health. In june Germanus Faffney went out on

Patrick’s return ticket. Onreceipt of his first report from India Malachey was appointed Provincial

protempore with Adrian Keogh, Serenus Bergin, Laurence Forde and Ignatius Smyth as his

council. In notifying these appointments the superior General directed that the administration

pay special attention to the spiritual exercises, the appointment of community bursars, the

holding of local councils and the wearing of the half-inch clerical collar. “Deep collars are out,”

he declared. In April 1915 Malachy left India for Australia and Adrian Keogh became Provincial,

with Serenus Bergin, Laurence.

Forde, Gabriel O’ Farrell and Mark Lee as assistants. Eugene Phelan returned from home leave

in Ireland bringing with him Louis Dineen and Mr. Delahunty, a secular teacher bound for St.

George’s. The Superior General was to expend time and money over the next few years

inrepeated efforts to recruit lay teachers for that establishment. July saw two other departures

for India, Bros. Sylvanus Commins and Charles Burke. The former was intended for St.

George’s as a science teacher. At the request of the Provincial he took with him a plan for a

science laboratory based on that at St. Joseph’s, Galway, and in later years it served as a

model for several other schools. The Provincial’s suggestion to allow Ignatius Smyth a holiday in

Ireland on the grounds of impaired health was rejected by the Superior General as not in

accordance with the Acts of Chapter and as Dangerous in wartime conditions, but only a month

later he yielded to the extent of conceding a permanent return. In his he was probably

influenced by the position of Bro. Gabriel O’ Farrell who had suffered a series of minor stokes

and was in need of rest from his duties at Coonoor. The hope was that both men would travel

together in November, but on 30th October Gabriel suffered a fatal stroke. He had been told by

his doctor to remain in his room that day, but in early morning exerted himself in chopping wood

and later took a drawing class during which he collapsed. He died on the 31st and was replaced

by Aidan Doyle. Ignatius sailed for Ireland alone where he remained some months before

transferring to Australia and leaving the Congregation a short time afterwards.

The Provincial’s report of January 1916 made for sober reading. Of six Brothers at Coonoor,

three were old and infirm, one totally excluded from school work by illness, leaving three to

manage an enrolment of 150 pupils. Adyar had 140 boys and a burdensome debt. As two of the

five brothers were of little or no help for school work, examination success was laking. Religious

exercise at Hahore were poorly attended with four Brothers for 121 pupils and dimatic

conditions almost intolerable for six months of the year. Religious observance was good at St.

George’s and the financial position improved. There were seven Brothers. Including the

Provincial who acted as Superior, and Adrian Mulcahy old and infirm. Pupils numbered 161.St.

Fidelis’ catered for 217 boys and had five Brothers. Observance was good and the financial

situation sound. Both Mussoorie establishments would benefit byh the reservation of the

Blessed Sacrament; and the Superior General’s support was requested in securing the

archbishop’s permission for this. Responding Bro. Jerome emphasized the importance of the

exercises of Rule even for Lahore, gave a directive on Councils and record keeping, added a

line for the benefit of the Archbishop in which he lamented that “after twenty years the

communities were deprived of the benefit of the Blessed Sacrament in their oratories. In April

the Provincial wrote to the Archishop of Madras offering to take over the entire debt on the

Adyar establishment, then nearly Rs. 14,000, in return for a lease in perpetuity. A document was

signed on 16th November 1916 specifying that neither party might alienate the property,

regulating rent, repair, extensions and a limited subsidy for certain orphans. In the event of the

Brothers departure the property would revert to the archdiocese which would reimburse them for

capital expenditure incurred after Novermber 1916.

The one remaining pioneer of the Indian mission, Ignatius Price, became ill on 11 th May,

seemed to rally a little next day, received the Last Screaments on the 13 th and was removed to

hospital where he remained in a semi-conscious condition before departing quietly on the 15 th.

The Provincial was able to stricke a more hopeful note in a letter of the 27 th of that month when

he related that he expected to receive application for admission for four nature postulants and

enquired what would be the Regime’s attitude towards having hem do their novitiate at Tullow.

He had previously been warned against setting up a novitiate in India, in view of earlier failures

in tht regard. In the same letter he stated that Coonoor had only two Brothers in full time

teaching; administration and other cares taking most of the sperior’s time.

July brought further worries in the shape of dissension at St. Fidelis’ due, it was said, to the

preponderating influence of certain members of the lay staff. Lahore, finding it impossible to

retain lay teachers because of the climate, had then only four Brothers and four laymen instead

of the eleven the college needed. An inspector thought that Coonor shoud not continue as a

High School . The result was a recommendation that if Ireland culd not supply Brothers the

alterative was to close one school, the Regimeto decide which. The years of the Great, War

were marked bya decline in religious vocations in Ireland, particularly to the Brotherhoods, a

position which continued into the middle twenties because of political unrest and armed

struggle. In Novermber the Provincial thought the state of affairs at Coonoor deplorable, blaming

the Principal as unequal to the task and lacking the will to try. St Fidelis’ continued in a state of

uneasy tension with the entire lay staff threatening resignation if the administration remained

unchanged. Early in 1917 for of the lay staff resigned and a Brother left borh college and

Congregation. Enrolment and prestige suffered as a result. Bro. Adrian moved to St. Fidelis as

superior and principal where he had the assistance of Brothers Masterson and Virgilius

O’Connell and the support of the two old men, Bros. Bernard Delany and Adrin Mulcahy.

At Adyar four Brothers and an Anglo-Indian postulant Managed the orphanage but the

archbishop was pressing for a staff which could guarantee examination results. On 19th June he

suggested the sale of Ninety acres to Government but did not press the matter in face of stong

opposition from the Provincial. At St. George’s Louis Dineen had improved enrolment, general

tone and finance and at Coonoor the same process was under way under Laurence Forde.

School and finances were more than satisfactory at Lahore where the bishop expressed himself

as well pleased. Everywhere younger and more active teachers were taking commissions in the

army, a treand which increased over the next two years as the possibility of conscription loome,

adding to the pressure on Brothers already too few in number. Religious between the ages of 18

and 41 had registered under the Compulsory Training Ordinance while claiming exemption as

missionary religious. The former Bro. Curley now sought re-admission to the Province and

Congregation, but this application was blocked by Tullow. The Superior General’s request for

authorization to withdraw Pension Found payments made by Brothers while teaching in the Irish

national schools was nor generally welcome and was dropped. It had arisen following the

deaths of Bros. Gabriel O’ Farrell and Michael Ryan when it was found that such payments

were not repayable unless specifically mentioned in the will of the deceased. It did lead to the

general making of wills throughout the Congregation.

Late in 1917 the Superior General sought the Provincial’s candid opinion on the advisability of a

withdrawal from Lahore, In the same letter he rejected Bro. Adrains’s expressed wish to be

allowdd resign his office in view of the next to impossible position where the manpower just

sufficient to staff two schools was expected to run five. The position was well illustrated by the

figures contained in a letter from Provincial and Council to the Regime dispatched on 10 th

January 1918. Over the five schools there were 20 Brothers and 34 lay teachers, the latter

costing the Province Rs. 37,500 annually. It was often necessary to employ teachers who were

not Catholics and, despite canonical prohibition, women. Possible vocations from schools could

not be accepted fr lack of formation facilities. Brothers taught classes and subjects for which

they had neither training nor experience, andhis inface of competition from better-equipped and

better-staffed schools. Unqualified Brothers sent out from Ireland were not acceptable to the

education authorities and there was little opportunity for them to receive formal training . The

visitation report supplied on 5th February 1918 reported four brothers at Adyar, of whom Bergin,

Brosman and Logue were long-serving and ConlethDownes the new man. The School was

slowly improving, with six passes out of nine in 1917. Observance was good. At Coonoor where

there were six Brothers observance was also good but examination results only fair. The

number of Brothers at Lahore remained at four and Aidan Doyle was now superor instead of

Mark Lee. The school was in good shape and examination results splendid,but religious

observance was poor. At St.George’s entrolment had increased from 180 to 230 but there were

no examination results to report due to the non-arrival of the Cambridge papers. St. Fidelis’ had

six Brothers, including the Provincial who was also superior. Adrain’s response to the query as

to the advisability of closing one school is interesting:

I see no reason why Lahore should close rather than Adyar or Coonoor. For years past Adyar

has had no chance of working. Coonoor does not have the support of the bishop and clergy who

favour their own college at Bangalore”

Bro. Bernard Delany, inIndiasince 1883, went down with entreric fever on 15 th September and

after a long strucggle died at 2 p.m. on 2nd October.He was laid to rest in St. Michael’s Church

beside his colleague Aloysius Hogan, Informed of his death the Superior General wrote “I had

hoped to be back in India to clse his eyes.” St. George’s, where enrolment continued togrwo,

had severe influenza in late 1918, besides losing three of its lay staff to the army. The college

finished the year with six resident lady teachers. St. Fideli’s had alsolsot staff to the army, and

depended largely on four active Brothers. At Adyar, where Germanus Faffney had been

addedto the staff, observance was good, numbers were up and there was more interest in the

examination syllabus. Lahore led the way in examination success with 100% passes in the

Higher Grade including 2nd, 3rd and 5th places, 10 passes out of a possible 12 in Middle grade

with a first place and a scholarship award, a first place and a scholarship in the Primay. In

addition religious observance was much better.

Aidan Doyle and Louis, Dineen were the delegates chsen to accompany the Provincial to the

FifthGeneral Chapter at Mountarath in August 1919. While the were yet on ehir way the

Archbishio of Madras and his Council wrote to Mark Lee, superior at Ddyar, Suggesting that

legal advice he taken as to the registration of the 1916 lease. This was done, and two

authorities gave it as their opinions that registration was not possible as the document stood.

Since registration might involve later proceedings in a civkl court it was agreed that the lease

should stand and any dispute be submitted to Rome. At Lahore life was interrupted by civil

disturbances, necessitating a temporary move to Mussoorie, Despite this the examination

results were excellent and the quality of community. Life praiseworthy.

Following the General Chapter Bro. Malachy Carew was appointed Provincial, his Council

consisting of Aidan Doyale, Sylvanus ommins, Louis Dineen and Serenus Bergin. The New

Provincial’s visitation report dated 25th April 1920 gave a very favouragle summary.

“There is, I am glad to say, a spirtit of unity and chrity among the Brothers. All worked very hard

in spite of difficulties, and the results of the public examinations show how perseveringly –late

and early– the few who were able to work did their part and more.”

In May Bros. Lazerian Darcy and Patrick O’Brien arrived, the fromer from Austriala, the latter

from Ireland, and in July Matthew Gaynor and Serenus Begin went on home leav. Meantime

Bro. Gaffney was diagnosed as suffering from tuberculosis and Mark Lee was recalled to

Ireland, while at years’s end Charles Burke left the Congregation. On 16 th December Bro.

James Donovan died at Coonoor aged 85. In early life a soldier he had entered the diocesan

institute of St. James in Bangalarore before transferring to the Patricians in 1888. He spent

many years at Coonoor where he acted as church organist and was regarded as a very saintly

man. The early months of 1921 brought little by way of relief with Bro. Faffney in a sanatorium

for treatment, Virgilius O’Connell unsettled and Patrick O’Brien the victim of a tropical disease

likely to cut short his second term in India. Because of the illness of Xavier Byrne and Colman

Keehan Coonoor had only there active Brothers over a period. The Delegate Apostolic

expressed his unease at the presence of four female teachers at St. George’s and asked that if

ladies must be employed they should live outside the compound. One bright spot was the return

to health of Bro. Faffney and his posting to St. George’s. Such was the need for aid that in

September the Provincial appealed to Tullow for “one or two young Brothers who could manage

the stores, etc.” In the same letter he was able to tell that in a debt-collecting tour at Bomay he

had, despite a bad attack of illness, collected Rs.6,200.

Insufficiency of school staff forced an application to the Delegate Apostolic that Bro. Anthony

Price be allowed to teach secular subjects for a maximum of two hour and religious knowledge

for one hour during his novitiate at Adyar. Before the promulgation of the 1918 Code novices

had regularly taken classes, but secular studies were now strictly regulated and the request was

disallowed. Patrick O’Brien, now back in Ireland, continued ill and in the Superior General’s

workds was “likely to be an invalid for some time.” The examination results at the Mussoorie

Colleges were good, indeed those at St. Fidelis splendid, whole Lahore again took first and

second places. Illness continued to be a problem in 1922 with Xavier Byrne suffering over

several months with an undiagnosed disease of spine and lungs and the Provincial troubled by

a persistet ailment which neither medicine nor diet could moderate and which forced his return

to Ireland in August. In Spetember Sylvanus Commins became Provincial, Aidan Doyle, Louis

Dineen, Jerome Byrne and Serenus Bergin forming his Council. Notice of appointment dated 9 th

September did not reach the new administration until mid-October, having being diverted

through many places, including the United States, on the way. Two temporary professed,

Declan Murray and Vincent McEvoy, arrived about the same time and were posted to Madras.

On 21st October Xavier bade good-bye to his suffering–disagnosed as Hodin’s Disease–at

Mussoorie. Jerome Byrne and Stanislaus Bergin were both in hospital at Lahore and Colman

Keenehan in a sanatorium.

In January 1923–having already been reminded that he should keep Tullow better informed of

events in his Province–the Provincial announced appointments. Bonaventure Logue at Adyar

where he had already spent several years, Louis Dineen at Coonoor, AidanDoyle at St.

George’s, Serenus Bergin at St. Fidelis for the first of many terms, and Jerome Byrne at Lahore.

The remainder of a brief letter was filled with bad news– Anthony Price had been denied vows

because of doubts as to assist with office work had shown himself unequal to the task of

account keeping and of overseeing sales and purchases. Worse still he had recently shown

evidence of a nervous disorder. Stanislaus Bergin had been pronounced in need of intestinal

surgery which, however had had to be postponed. There were just eighteen active Brothers. In

April the Doctors pronounced Bro. Jerome’s illness incurable in India and ordered him home.

Also at Lahore Regis O’Connel was ill with enteric fever. The position worsened over the

following months. In August the Province had seventeen Brothers to staff five schools, each of

which had over 200 pupils, with boarders in a majority. At Madras a specialist doctor had

declared Murray to be physically and mentally unfit for religious life. In essence only one man of

any use had arrived in the Province during the year and even he lacked formal teaching

qualifications! All this was bluntly conveyed in a letter dated 2nd August 1923.

One 24th September the Superior Genral replied deploring the tone of that ltter and requesting

an explanation. He stressed that during his years at Tullow Murray had seemed perfectly

normal, able to perform the ordinary tasks which came the way of young men of his age.

Otherwise he could not have been professed. On 6th November the Provincial dispatched a

short note stating that in respect of his letter of 2nd August the only explanation necessary was

“the lack of replacements for four Brothers recently returned to Ireland.” The Superior Genral in

his turn found this letter curt, but allowed that nothing could be gained by quarrels and

disharmony. Bro. Masterson had been appointed to replace Jerome Myrne on the Provincial

Council and it was hoped that wo temporary professed would soon be available to travel.

Bro. Anthony Price’s second attempt at a novitiate year would conclude in May 1924 at a time

when an eight-day spiritual retreat would be difficult, but a formal request that profession be

postponed to Christmas was rejected by the superior general. In March Celsus Steadman

saidled fromIreland alone, the parents of the second scholastic having refued permission for his

going. In March 1925 Carthage Kelly and Cuthbert Dobbyn, both temporary professed, were

sent out from Tullow,and in June the Provincial, Aidan Doyle and Joseph Masterson left

Bombay for Ireland and the Sixth General Chapter.The Indian administration appointed

following the Chapter was Adrian Keogh, Provincial for the third time, Sylvanus Commins,

Joseph Masterson, Louis Dineen and Serenus Bergin, Assistants. Aidan Doyle was now First

Assistant to the Superior General. Dorotheus Byrne, Xavier Henderson and Fergus Fleming

came out with the returning party. The Provincial took up residence at Lahore.

From the time of this appointment to Adyar two year earlier Bonaventure Logue had made

improvements and additions, constructing a new technical workshop, boys dining room, bakery

and kitchen, besides providing bungalows for chaplain and matron. Now with the aid of Bros.

Dobbyn, Byrne and Price he set his sights on modern facilities in the shape of flush toilets,

baths and electrical power. In this Dorotheus displayed his practical knowledge and manual

skills, boring the almost impenetrable walls of the old building, besides handling a junior class

with skill and efficiency.

The year 1926 brought permission for the reservation of the Blessed Sacrament at both the

Mussoorie colleges, something Adrian had pressed for a decade earlier. St Fidelis’ had a thirty–

year old novice, Bro. Alphonsus Carr, already three years on its staff as a lay teacher.

Suggestions for the novitiate horamius were requested and received from Tullow. Bros. Serenus

Bergin, Masterson, Gaffney and Keely were the other members of the community. Strict

regulations on home leave were enacted in February, Brothers being required to report to the

Superior General on arrival and to spend a week at a monastery after each month with relatives,

such stay to extend to a second week at the mid-way stage. The were also to write to the

Superior General once a month. The Provincial asked that two Brothers going home in April be

retained in Ireland; he even named the replacements expected. Two untrained scholastics were

promised with one of those he had named, a man who was later to prove a thorn in his side. In

August Serenus Bergin was able to donate Rs. 1,000 towards the debt on Mount St. Joseph,

Tullow. That same month Bro. Logue’s long-maintained exertions were to prove too much for

him and he was admitted to hospital in state of debility, just when his lieutenant Dorotheus

Byrne went down with fever. One of the two promised scholastics being a ward of court was

legally prevented from travelling; a young and inexperienced superior needed to be replaced

and the Provincial was ill at Rawalpindi for more than a month with paratyphoid fever. He and

Bro. Commins had gone to see about a projected foundation at Muree where the Prefect

Apostolic was anxious to have the Brothers for a new college yet to be built. Though in favour

the Provincial Council though that six new Brothers would be required by the envisaged opening

date in 1928.

Bro. Alphonsus carr was professed on 22nd January 1928 and remained at St. Fidelis’ where the

community was commended for its spirit of religious observance. At Adyar where observance

and carity likewise flourished Bro. Logue, due for home leave in Ireland, was replaced by Bro.

Logue, due for home leave in Ireland, was replaced by Bro. Faffney. A s it was understood that

Bro. Prince intended to leave the Congregation it was thought that his application for renewal of

vows should not be entertained and he was so informed. After an apparent change of heart and

an appeal to the archbishop the young man was permitted to renew temporary profession,

though this was not to be the end of his troubles. Regis O’ Connell was transferred from St.

George’s to Coonoor where the Senior Class, taught by a lay teacher, had miserably failed the

annual examination, and where the Inspector queried Bro. Steadman’s qualifications in spite of

the good results of his teaching. As part of a general effort to raise standards generally the

Board of Instruction was prepared to insist that only academically qualified teachers be

appointed. In view of this policy the same Inspector reported adversely on the staff at Adyar,

religious and secular, asserting that “not one male member is qualified”. In face of the threat to

recommend withdrawal of grant Bro. Gaffney’s health broke and he joined Stanislaus Bergin in

hospital. The situation was saved by Bro. Logue’s offer to postpone his home leave, already

booked. A bad situation was complicated by anonymous allegations sent to the archbishop of

mismanagement at the orphanage. In May Bro. Faffney went to Ireland and was followed shortly

afterwads by Bro. Gergin who was retained there on gounds of health. Visitation was carried out

by Bro. Aidan Doyle and the presence of a man already well acquainted with India prompted the

Provincial to appeal that Aidan be allowed to assume charge at adddyar until Christmas and

that three Brothers be supplied form Ireland, two of whom he ventured to name. Replying to the

Superior General’s enquiry as to Muree he stated that the latter’s offer of two Brothers a year for

that project was of no use whatever. In any event there had been no progress there because

government had refused a grant for the projected college. To help meet requirements at Adyar

Stephen Delaney had gained admission to Teacher Training College, travelling there each day

on a motor cycle and managing to break his collar bone in the process. Fergus Fleming of the

same community was hospitalized in August for a second time that year. Bro Doyle had

returned to Ireland in June and two finally professed Brothers and a scholastic were sent out in

autumn. They were Aengus Dooley, a trained teacher, Enda Carroll and Ailbe Mulvihill.

The Inspector having ageing expressed dissatisfaction with the staff at Coonoor the Provincial

arranged to send Bros. Carroll and Mulvihill to Madras Training College when Stephen Delany

should graduate from there in July. In a letter to Tullow he stressed that the minimum

qualification for Brothers coming out should be Matrculation or the equivalent of the British ACP

or LCP, with a second language highly desirable, As standards continued poor at Adyar he

arranged for Matthew Gaynor to take charge and over the nect three years that man stove with

might and main for improvement in all departments. Coonoor had seven Brothers, three of

whom hardly counted for school work, Bro. Forde at 75, Steadman studying for qualification,

and Vincent Brosna ill from time to time. To a request that the Brothers be registered as

managers of the school the Bishop of Coimbatore responded with a proposal for a new lease on

terms less than acceptable to the Provincial Council and to the Regime in Ireland. Statistics

given with the Provincial’s Visitation Report showed that seven Brothers were studying for the

ACP examination, one (Bro. Darcy, who was also Principal and Superior at St. George’s) for the

LCP, and two (Bros. Commins and Downers) reading for the B.A. degree. Bro. Brosnan had

shaken off a temporary delusion that he had been excommunicated at Romeas a result of

information laid against him there.

Correspondence and consultation on the implications of the lease proposed for Coonoor went

on over the concluding months of 1927] the diocese saying that nothing new was proposed, the

Provincial contending that nothing new was proposed, the Provincial contending that the

document fundamentally altered the previous position. In January 1928 a letter from Bishop Roy

terminated discussion with the statement.

“I wish you to understand that registration of your Society as the Governing Body of St. Joseph’s

College is a point which cannot be any more discussed. My previous letter have made my views

clear to you. I am not prepared to alter them.”

Bro, Eugene Phelan had been an institution at St. George’s since the 1890s where he taught

mathematics to senior classes. On 8th January 1928 he put his bedclothes to air in the sun and

in replacing them failed to notice that they had absorbed some damp. The result was that he

worke during the night with severe backache and spent the next few days in bed wth a chill. By

mid-month he seemed well again but on the24th went down with advanced 80 pneumonia. On

the 28th he suffered a violent hemorrhage of the lungs, dying about 11 a.m. The Phelan Cup for

mathematics preserves his memory. Provincial appointments announced in Bebruary saw just

one change from those of 1925, Bro. Gaynor replacing Louis Dineen on the Council. Fergus

Flemings’s going to St. Gerge’s as replacement for Eugene Phelan the Provincial described as

“a very poor shift indeed.” The news from Muree was that the Prefect intended to Build, with or

without state funding; the college to open in 1930. Examination results proved rewarding,

particularly at Coonoor which had 100% successes in Senior and Junior Cambridge. St.

George’s had thirteen passes out of sixteen with two honours and two scholarships while St.

Fudekus scired fiyr iyt if fiyr wutg a scgikarsguo ub the Sebuir Canbrudge, Ut aksi tiij tge Sguekd

fir Rekuguiys Knowledge, special credit going to the classes taught by Bro. Keely. The

Provincuial’s Report, dated 31st December, included some interesting statistics. Lahore had four

Brothers, Celsus Steadman having gone there to replace Colman Keenehan, now in hospital

and far gone with tuberculosis. The six at Coonoor included Bros. Forde and Brosnan, both

chronically ill. St. Fidelis' five included the Provincial when not substituting elsewhere. St.

George's had six Brothers for 260 pupils and needed a replacement for the late Eugene Phelan.

The Principal, Sebastain Darcy, had resigned in September, Bro. Commins acting in his stead.

Two candidates had applied for admission as postulants, but there was as yet no provision for

their novitiate. There had been no further development at Muree due to the illness of the

Prefect.

Early in 1929 Bro. Boniface Carroll held visitation during which he stressed the the importance

of the spiritual exercises and observance of Rule, impressing on all that these aspects of

religious life took precedence. Before he left India agreement was reached on Coonoor. Colman

Keenehan sailed for Ireland on 29th March for treatment in a sanatorium, and the Province sent

Rs. 1,632 to help with the purchase of Ballyfin as replacement for the nearly decrelict Mountrath

College. The Provincial apologies that the figure was not greater, saying that a certain superior

"might easily have added another naught" to his Rs. 100. This, however, was but a first effort,

India giving in all 2,470, nearly one twelfth of the total cost of purchases and fitting-up. Again St.

Fidelis's took the Silver Shield for Religious Instruction but was bettered on this occasion by St.

George's which secured the Golden Cross. Writing to Tullow on 20 th June the Provincial

mentioned the high incidence of sunstroke among Europeans and Indians. In other letters Bro.

Adrian commented dolefully that the General's emphasis on observance during his visitation

seemed to have fallen on deaf ears, especially in respect of the morning exercises. He also

lamented the recent decision by the Public Instruction Department that higher education

qualifications would be insisted on for all schools from January 1930. In this last the Department

was perhaps overinfluenced by Chief Inspector Kershaw, whose matra was that a European

school should never sppear inferior to its Indian counterpart.

In mid–August the Provincial sought from all communities guarantees of attendance at the

religious exercises on the part of Brothers nor excused on grounds of health or duty, and again

laid stress on the importance of deferred meditation. Bro. Laurence Forede, a victim of paralysis

for two years, took a turn for the worse on the evening of the 12th and died at 7.30 a.m. on the

13th at Coonoor, He had been in India from 1893. The Provincial now announced plans for a

Province Novitiate, suggesting that Ireland recruit three or four postulants of good education for

India, send them out with some novices, temporary professed and an older Brother as either

novice master or senior teacher. India would find a house for a novitiate. More than twenty

years in India had caused Adrian to despair of continued reliance on Ireland for men who, even

when available, were rarely qualified for the Indian educational system. The scheme received

an early set-back with the archbishop's refusal to provide a site for a novitiate house except on

condition that site and building revert to the archdiocese in the event of the Brothers' withdrawal.

While the Superior General doubted whether postulants for India could be found in Ireland he

agreed to try. He entirely approved rejection of the archbishop's position, preferring purchase or

leasing of another property. He also declared the Department's six month's notice major

educational changes to be both unrealistic and unfair, and complimented the Provincial on his

efforts for improved observance. On 8th Novermber Bros. Jarlath Phelan and Ignatius O' Brien

left Ireland for India. Both had taken the First University Examination in Arts, but only the latter

had been successful. Writing the Provincial observed that of nine a second language, someting

increasingly necessary. He could not say when it might be possible to make a start on the

novitiate project. The liquidators concerned with the sale of Whytbank Cstle were "holding out

for Rs. 40, 000 for the house in its present ramshackle condition." A month later he was able to

report that Rockdale Cottage had been rented on a three-year lease with a view to a March start

should personnel be available. Regis O'Connell would leave for Ireland on sick leave on 2nd

January and Celsus Steadman wihed to leave the Congregation "because he could not qualify

for teaching."

On 5th January 1930 the Superior General wrote to say that there could be no postulants before

March and that it was extremely unlikely that Ireland could send a senior Brother for the

novitiate. While his letter was yet on its way he received the Provincial Council's views, summed

up in its way he received the Provincial Council's views, summed up in a concluding phrase:

"Unless you send us someone to teach the novices and scholastics the effort will be an absolute

fare." The Provincial reported that St. George's now had 275 pupils and seven Brothers,

Aloysius Smith replacing Regis O' Connell. St. Fidelis' success he described as "phenomenal,

owing to Bro. Masterson's organizsing ability." There were 203 pupils and five Brothers

including the Provincial and the newcomer Bro. (Ignatius) O' Brien. At Adyar a fine spirit of

candour and charity prevailed and the three younger Brothers were working towards the ACP.

Space was a problem and dormitories were overcrowded. At Lahore sixty-five of the 280 pupils

were boarders but financially the school was a failure. Observance had improved everywhere,

but those Brothers taking examinations were overworked in class and forced to study late into

the night. In March he was able to report examination results as exceptionally good, with those

of St. George's constituting "a record for any school in India."

The Superior General had less cheering news to retail. Bro. Stanislaus Bergin had been in

England and Scotland since late February contacting possible recruits for India, but had been

confined to bed for all of six weeks by pleurisy, and but for the kindness of a priest friend might

have died. Better news was hoped for now that he had resumed work. On the 27 th May the

better news was conveyed in a letter stating that three scholastics and six postulants would sail

from London on the 21st June. Stanislaus had hoped to travel with them, but was now

hospitalied at Dublin. On 14th July in Mid-monsoon Bro. Patrick O' Brien, three temporary

professed and five postulants arrived at Madras, and entrained that same evening for Rockdale.

It was soon discovered that one of the postulants had forged a character reference and altered

his birth certificate. As he claimed to have Friends at Bombay these were contacted and asked

to receive him. Just one of the party had brought a baptismal certificate and that consisted of a

few lines scribbled on the back of his birth certificate. Requesting that "the recruiting sergeant"

be informed of thse defects Adrian begged that a sixth candidate, a convert held in reserve,

should not be sent out"as I believe he would be of doubtful use." If Ireland could not supply a

novice master he would appoint Bro. Carr and hope for a mathematics teacher insted. A final

note sopke of rumounred confilict between the superior at Coonoor and the local clergy.

A letter from the Coonoor chaplain soon confirmed the rumours of disharmony, the superior

having apparently antagonised his community and staff. The Provincial, although reluctant to be

away from Rockdale just when studies were starting, decided that he must absent himself for

four or five weeks during wich Bro. Commins would supervise the novitiate as well as running

St. George's. Bro. Gaynor would transfer to Coonor as soon as possible, while the displaced

man would "cool off" at Adyar where Byrne would be superior and Dooley Principal.

Investigation at Coonoor showed that two community members were carekess if ibservabcem

indeed appeared to lack the religious spirit, whole the staff was less than adequate and even

included "one or two doubtful characters." Re-organizsation meant that Alysious Smith assumed

responsiblility for all senior classes ad that Conleth Downes, trembling on the edge of a nervous

break-down accompanied Patrick O' Brien back to Ireland. The latter had been willing to remain

and help out as long as his health might last, but medical opinion forbade his taking that chance

and the two men left on the 30th AUGUST. Reporting all this to Ireland Adrian again asked for

"Two or three reliable senior Brothers who would be an example to toehrs and assist in restoring

discipline." If these were not to be had he gegged to be given ghree or four months at some

quiet retreat in Ireland during which he might consider his personal position.

On 6th September news little calculated to soothe frayed nerves arrived by cable. Bro Conleth

Downes had on the previous day died of sunstroke aboard the . Rajputna. He had been buried

at sea that morning, Bro. O'Brien reading the service. The news, with a more formal report from

the caption was forwarded to Ireland and letters dispatched to the three Downes brothers in the

Congregation. A cable from the Superior General conveyed sympathey and encouragement and

was followed by a letter directing action against Brothers in breadh of rule and discipline. India

was to expect a finally professed Brother from the Tullow schools, but the situation in Ireland did

not admit of further attenuation. Mark Lee was then seriously ill and not expected to live. By the

18th September Adrian was back at rochdale he was "superior, steward, matron and general-

man-top-supply-all- wants." Two postulants showed promise, having Lating and Frech the

others wwre reduced to commencing Arithmetic, Algebra and Gemetry. The scholastics were

following the Act Programme and had applied to be allowed to take gaelic as a second laguage.

There were only four in comunity at Coonoor where at least eight of the invited clergy had

neglected to attend Prize Day on the 10th On 6th November just two postulants remained at

Rochdale. Stressing that it was better that candidates be trained in India Adrian again pressed

for two eighteen or nineteen year-old postulants from home and at least two temporary

professed Opinion in the Province he believed to be divided. Some facoured bringing temporary

rofessed from home to attend college at Madras; a few thought it was time that the Province had

its own novitiate, most doubted that candidates could be found in numbers which might warrant

a full formation process. The death of the Prefect Apostolic rendered revical of the Muree

project unlikely. By this time too Jarlath Phelan had requested to be dispensed from his vows,

adding to he pessimism of those who doubted whether any effort could succeed. For his part

the Superior General firmly ruled out the seeking of further postulants for India. The effort and

cost involved made the project impracticable.

The election of delegates to the Seventh General Chapter took place in December 1930 and

caused the Provincial to renew his entreaties for replacements for the senior men who must be

absent from the Province for four or five months. In one such letter he ;declared: "So far we

have been pulling along with little more than pious wishes from the Regime." Understandable as

the words were they were less than fair to the superior General and his council who, pressed by

demands from three Provinces, worked under very difficult conditions. The fact that the

delegates chosen were Bros. Dineen and Gaynor, both superiors and principles of schools, was

indeed a serious challenge to the smooth working of the Province, and only the knowledge that

the Acting Provincial would be Bro. Sylvanus Commins prevented a sense of crisis from taking

hold. Bro. Logue had taken over at Coonoor, where enrolment had decreased a little, droppi9ng

from 172 in 1992 to 161 at the end of 1930. Bros. Carr, Carroll and Callistus Bergin completed

the community, and if only Carr was highly experience the others were able teachers and

sincere religious. There had been five lady teachers but his number had been drastically

reduced. Four Brothers constituted the community at Adyar, O'Byrne, Faffney, Mulvihill and

Stephen Delaney, a number totally inadequate to cater successfully for the 258 pupils. Three of

the four hoped to complete their ACP programme by year's end, thorough-going optimists as

they were. The Provincial's summary was despairing, saying that the establishment did tittle

beyond providing shelter for orphans. Technical training was a necessity and should be

restored. St. George's had six Brothers and 265 pupils. A fine spirit prevaded community and

school, duty was zealously attended to and observance was good. The usual good spirit of

harmony and charity was evident amongh the four Brothers and nine lay staff taught 300 pupils

at Lahore. Of the latter 140 were Indian-born day scholars. Conditions required a three-pronged

horarium, one for the period from October to March, a second for March to May and the third for

the remianing months. School duties were carefully discharged and discipline good. At

Rockdale there were three novices, and three young professed preparing for the Senior

Cambridge Examination in December. Appeal must be made to Rome to allow Bro. Dooley to

act as superior and novice master since Bro. Carr's presence at Coonoor remained essential. If

the formation process were to continue a larger house was a necessity. As a general comment

the report pointed out that the Province had now twenty-five Brothers as against twenty-eight

sixteen years earlier. The practice of sending out temporary professed should be abandoned so

long as these were unqualified for the work they must do in the schools. Observance of Rule,

ever difficult in view of work-loads and climate, was to be regarded as less than satisfactory at

present. Aware that the situation was difficult and the prospects discouraging, Adrian reluctantly

brought himself to accept the advice provided by Tollow: " We suggest your make some

temporary arrangement and let the Chapter decide what is to be done."

The Chapter provided a new superior General and two new Assistants and in a fine gesture of

confidence thse sent Adrian back as Provincial. Bros. Commins, Bergin, Gaynor and Masterson

formed his Council. On 25th September and while these deliberations were in progress Colman

Keenehan died at Lahore, victim of pulmonary tuberculopsis at the age of 47. Gentle, reliable

and trustworthy, his energy and enthusiasm had been limited by recurrent illness, but his

readiness to serve wherever required had seen him work in Ireland, Australia and India during

the relatively short span allotted to him from his entering in 1905. When the Chapter

representatives returned in October they brought with them foru temporary professed for

Rockdale, Ambrose Fitzpatrick, Gerald Gannon, Urban Coady and Raymond Byrne. With the

coming of Archbishop Eugene Vederlet in 1928 the Salesain Congregation took over the

Madras mission from the Mill Hill Fathers. On 1st February 1932 the Archbishop notified Bro.

Adrian of his intention to place the Adyar Orphanage under Silesian management from 1st

January 1993 and courteously requested his reaction to this decision. On 9th instant Adrian

responded that he had conveyed his Grace's proposal to the Superior General, Bro. Stanislaus

Slattery, and two months later wrote again enclosing a copy of the General's reply requesting

the Archbishop to reconsider his decision. Within the month he was informed that the change of

management would go ahead as planned. Appeal was made to Rome which in March 1933

pronounced against the proposal. The Superior General was then in the Province on visitation,

doing much to encourage the communities, sympathizing with them in the burden of work due to

paucity of numbers, while stressing that religious observance took precedence of all else. He

was able to attended the funeral of one man whose simplicity would have delighted his heart

had they met earlier. Vincent Corelius Brosnan, born in Kerry in 1852, had entered the

Congregation in Australia, aged thirty-six, serving it humbly in may a menial capacity in that

country and in India until 27th May 1933. He had been in good health the day before his death

and had attended Night Prayer with his Coonoor community on 26 th When he did not appear for

Morning Prayer or Mass a Brother went to his room and found him at the point of death. There

was just time for the chaplin to administer the Last Rites before life departed as quietly as it had

been live. With the transfer of the three young Irishmen and a Scotsman to active service in the

schools Rockdale Novitiate closed on 30th June 1993. For the third time an attempt at a

Province novitiate had failed, though even then, such are the limitations imposed on us by

culture, no one adverted to the fact that not one of the attempts had addressed the indigenous

Church. Three months later came the death of Bro. Dorthus Dyrne after just eight years in India,

all of them at Adyar. Andrew Byrne, born in County Offaly in 1886, was probably unique among

later Irish Patricians in that he had never attended a National School, but was educated at home

by a governess. He entered Tullow Monastery in 1908 and was sent to India in 1925. At Adyar

he did much to improve and beautify the grounds and was superior there from 1928 to 1931. In

late August 1993 he suffered a severa attack of dysentery and was admitted to hospital where

he died on 4th September. Fr. Menzies and the three Brothers from the community were with

him for some hours before the end. He was replaced at the Orphanage by Matthew Gaynor.

In January 1934 three temporary professed, Cathaldus Mahony, Felim Maher and Camillus

Kennedy left for India, this time for the schools while qualifying as best they might in a return to

the old situation. Their comming was a gesture of support for the Provincial's decision to accept

an invitation to open a school at Dehra Dun in the beauti8ful and fertile valley of that name. On

19th February Bros. Adrian Keogh, Joseph Masterson, Vincent McEvoy, Isidore Donovan and

Livinus Caslin took possession of a two-storey house and fifteen acres on the finest site in the

city. The ground floor became classrooms, the upper floor a monastery and St. Joseph's

Academy opened for business on 1st March with fifteen pupils. It is unlikely that all five Brothers

remained to establish a pupil teacher ratio unknown elsewhere. We know that the enrolment

soon rose to 20 but have little information on the early fortunes of school and community. Even

the silver Jubilee issue of the Academician, the school annual, contains next to nothing on those

first years.

On 22nd February Bro. Aloysius Carberry died in Hospital at Madras where he had been an

inmate for many years. He had entered the congregation thirty-one years earlier, a well-

educated and cultured man and had done good work at Coonoor until the slow failure of his

mental faculties required hospitalization. A heart attach had confined him to bed for a few days

during which he gladly received Extreme Unction, but could not be persuaded to make his

Confession. We shall one day know what graces his life and long illness won for him and for the

remaining thirty-five Brothers in the Province .

Two days later the Superior General in Ireland received a nasty jolt in the form of a query from

the Sacred Congregation for the Progagation of the Faith as to why he had petitioned the S.C.

for Affairs of Religious aginst the proposal of the Archbishop of Madras when jurisdiction

properly rested with Propaganda Fidei. It was palin that unfavourable representations had been

made at Rome. With the aid of a Roman jurist Bro. Stanislaus entreated pardon, explaining that

he had followed custom in his recourse to the SCR. As regards the unnamed defects a Special

Visitor was being dispatched with full powers to introduce any necessary reforms. A certifed

copy of the petition as originally submitted was enclosed and no more was heard from

Propaganda. The Visitor was Bro. Malachy Carew, Asasistant General, a man well acquainted

with the Orphanage and the Province generally. He spent eight months in India, and made

every effort to meet the wishes of the Madras ecclesiastical authorities. During that time

Archbishop Vederlet died in the confessional . A legal action to eject squatters from the Adyar

grounds was settled by payment of a sub as compensation and legal fees, the archdiocese

refusing to subscribe towards the cost of the settlement.

September saw Bros. Sylvanus Commins, Serenus Bergin, Joseph Masterson, Sebastain Darcy

and Germanus Faffney assume responsibility for the Province and Adrian Keogh return to

Ireland The end of year examination results were such as to cheer the hearts of the new

administration, those at Mussoorie being particularly good. Over the years the admission of

Indian pupils to European Schools had been strictly limited by official regulations. In 1935 St.

Anthony's, Lahore, needing accommodation for its Anglo-Indian boarders and orphans, decided

that the time was opportune to do something for the increasing number of Indian applicants. A

new block was built without Government aid and classes for Indian boys opened. At first this

was a private school, but it proved so popular that within a few years the total umber of pupils

exceeded 600. Recognition by the Punjab University Indian Catholic Union. followed and

candidates took Matriculation. Soon Anglo-Indian boys were availing of the same facility.

The Superior General paid his second visit to the Province in 1936, encouraging, cheering, and

as always, counseling and urging to a more perfect observance. Though a gifted teacher and

schoolman Stanislaus would always place observance above scholastic success. This time he

carried Zeal to the point of attempting to demonstrate that black Soutine was suited to the

Madras climate, only to go down with served attack of Prickly heat. Yet to judge by end-of –year

reports he succeeded in having priorities recognized in at least the three communities for which

records survive.

Bros. Commines, Msterson and Enda Carroll attended the Eighth General Chapter at Ballyfin in

July 1937 after which the Provincial Administration showed one change, Louis Dineen for

Germanus Gaffney. Bernardine Ryan Transferred from the Irish Province and Macartan Keegan

came form Australia. The archdiocese at this time asked that the Adyar Orphanage pay the

Chaplin's salary from its own funds as the chancellery was in debt and outside aid had

dwindled. with space at St. George's College taxed to capacity many pupils coming from a

distance had been compelled to attend as day-boys, "missing much of what is best in the

corporate life of the College, free association, Regular Games And Useful Control." Thus at

least the Prospectus saw it. Early in 1938 nearby Why bank Castle and grounds were acquired

for Rs. 15,000 and reconditioned as a hostel for Indian students. Ten years earlier the property

had been offered to the College for Rs.40,000 and a bid of Rs. 20,000 rejected. A year later the

College purchased Brook lands estate of thirty-three acres for Rs. 15,000, its legal agent being

the only prospective purchaser to attend the public auction. The chief attraction for the College

was the swimming pool for the use of which it had previously paid a stiff rent. The acquisition

gave the 400 pupils and 32 staff of the combined establishments exclusive use of that facility

with additional space for playing fields. On 14th October 1939 the Ordinates of the Ecclesiastical

Provinces of Delhi and Simla issued a pastoral letter aimed at introducing a uniform syllabus of

religious instruction and at organizing a Punjab According to statistics supplied to the Superior

General the Province had on 31st December 1940 six schools taught by thirty Brothers and

sixty-three lay teachers. Total enrolment was 1,386, made up of 630 day pupils, 517 boarders

and 386 orphans. Adyar had 247 orphans, Lahore 69 and St. Fidelis' 47. In February 1941

Louis Dineen became Provincial with Bros. Commins, Callistus Bergin, Darcy and Faffney as

his assistants. Three deaths occurred in the course of that year, the first on the 12th April when

Macartan Keegan died at Lahore. Suffering from high blood pressure he had not been in Good

health for some time. A product of the Monastery School at Galway, he had been a Pupil

Teacher there before going to Training College. Having worked for two years elsewhere he

entered the Congregation in 1906. Sent to India in 1908 he was recalled in 1926 and was

Principal at Mallow for two years. He then served for ten years in Sydney before returning to

India in 1938, working first at Mussoorie and finally at Lahore.

The Civil & Military Zazette noted his passing:

"The deceased was, in association with C.E. New ham, George Clarke and the late Eddie

Robin, Chiefly responsible for the formation of the Punjab Hockey Umpires Association. Since

his return to Lahore in 1939 he had taken up active work as a hockey umpire, being in great

demand, especially for the more important matches. He did yeoman service for the game both

in the Punjab and in Australia and was instrumental in an Indian XI being invited to tour

Australia and New Zealand. In his younger days he had been a great footballer, but was

probably better known as centre-halfback on St. Anthony's College team, being its mainstay for

many years."

Macartan was fifty-six. Six weeks later Germanus Faffney was called to his reward at age fifty-

four after thirty years as a Patrician. He had been Assistant Clerk to the Manorhamilton Rural

District Council before joining. On arrival in India in 1914 he first worked at Adyar and later at St.

Fidelis' and Coonoor before returning to Adyar as superior. Madras Educational Authority

appreciated him as a very competent teachr and because of his streling honesty and trustworthy

character placed an unbounded confidence in him as an examiner of candidates' papers in

school examinations. In may 1941 he was appointed superior at St. Fidelis' and left immediately

for Mussoorie. Pleurisy forced him to leave the train at Agra Cantonment Station and he was

admitted to the Thomson Memorial Hospital. For some days he seemed set for recovery, then

his condition became critical during the night of the 28th May and eath came in the early hours of

the 29th.

On the 3rd December Bro. Felim Maher drowned while bathing at Madras Harbour. Aged only 26

he had been in India since 1934. His body was not recovered. In March 1942 the military

requisitioned the Adyar Orphanage, removing the 200 inmates to the old Medical College

building at Coimbatore, later described as "a couple of sheds." Space was limted and sanitary

facilities primitive. When fever struck down two boys Bros. Enda Carroll and Isidore Donovan

attended them nigh and day. One of the two died and shortly afterwards Enda contracted the

disease and died in the local hospital. He was only thirty-seven, a man with a special sympathy

for his charges, a gifted teacher and sportsman. He was laid to rest at Coonoor. Death called

again in February 1943, taking Matthew Gaynor while on holiday at Lahore. A Tipperaryman by

origins he had entered Mountrath Monsstery in 1892 at the age of fifteen. Subsequently he

taught at Mountrath, Mallow and Galway and was the first Patrician Principal at Carrickmacross.

In India from 1906 he spent the last fifteen years of his life at Adyar. In the second week of his

vacation he was discovered unconscious on the floor of his room, having suffered a stroke. In

hospital he regained consciousness and understood all said to him but could not speak. He died

with rosary in hand on 20th February 1943.

Because of wartime conditions the Ninth General Chapter due in July 1943 was

postponed until the end of hostilities. During their stay at Coimbatore Brothers and orphans had

a good friend and benefactress in Mrs. O, Connor, headmistress of a local school. From strictly

limited resources she did much to alleviate hardship. Brothers and boys had good reason to be

grateful to her. With the ending of World War Two sea travel again became possible and in

September six Irish Brother sailed for India. They were James Foley, Frigidian Byrne, Eugene

Dunne, Conrad Long, Lambert Devery and Macartan Duffy, all destined to give long and

valuable service to the Province.

On the Ist July 1946 Brothers and orphans returned to Adyar and to a scene of damage and

neglect following four years of military occupation. Buildings were in a poor state of repair,

vehicle had made havoc with roads and grounds, protable ironware, even manhole covers, had

been carried off. Unkindest cut of all was that the archdiocese had disposed of an acre of gound

as site for a bus stand, the money going to church purposes. The Army paid Rs. 714 per month

for occupation of the buildings, an acceptable figure, but contested any claim for use of the

grounds. However, the community calculated that at pre-war values the farming land had been

worth as much as Rs. 2,000 by way of fruit, vegetables, rice fields, grazing for livestock

supplying milk and meat, all of which had to be sold off in March 1942. More realistically the

army authorities paid Rs. 9,000 for damage to buildings and grounds, besides allowing the

orphanage to purchases for Rs. 1,500 a lecture hall built at a cost of Rs. 12, 000. This became

the school hospital. Practically all the money received in compensation went into putting house

and grounds to rights and the institution found itself again dependent on the government grant

in addition to what could be made form the farm. Government aid was then Rs. 18 per month

per boy for 221 boys. Eighteen boarders paid Rs. 25 per month each. The eighty rupees per

month maximum subsidy agreed with Archbishop Aelen in 1916 had been discontinued under

his successors.

Bros. Dineen, Ritchie and Callistus Bergina attended the Ninth General Chapter at Ballyfin in

July 1946 where Bro. Gannon, then on home leave, was elected 4th Assistant General. In

September the new Provincial Administration was announced–Bros. Commins, Henderson,

McEvoy, Ritchie and Masterson. In December Bros. Colman Burke, Dorotheus Byrne and

Ambrose (John) Fitzpatrick arrived from Ireland to further strenghen the Province. On the 20 th

June 1947 Archbishop Mathias wrote to Bro. Commins informing him that all but thirty acres of

the Orphage farm was to be sold to Government and enclosing a copy of a document from

Propaganda authorising the sale. The letter stated that ownership of the thirty acres would be

transferred to the Brothers and that the archbishop would on his own authority give a sum of Rs.

50,000/- in appreciation of the Brothers' co-operation and good services. The chaplain's house

stood on the area to be sold and a further Rs. 10,000 was allowed on that. Though Government

had proposed to allot to the Orphanage only the 18 acres registered for tax purposes, the

archbishop had bargined for a further 50%. The letter concluded with two proposals, the

preparation of an agreement ceding the Orphange and 27.1 acres as a gift to the Brothers, and

acceptance of the enclosed cheque for Rs. 60,000/-

Thus were negotiations begun and ended by fiat. There were then four Brothers, nine lay

teachers and 260 orphans at St. Patrick's .

On 18th July 1947 the Indian Independence Bill became law and on the 15 th August the new

Dominions of India and Pakistan emerged as independent states of the British Commonwealth.

The mass migration of populations which followed was accompanied by violence and communal

strife. Lahore on the border suffered brif imprisonment in a barn fefore rescue by a friendly Sikh

officer. St. Anthony's remained open all along with Brothers patrolling the dormitories nightly

and a Brother accompanying the school bus to ensure the safety of the pupils. Partition caused

a drastic drop in enrolment, from 634 when the school closed in June to 125 on reoening in

September. Many boys who had formerly gone to school in India now sought admission and in

the space of a few years numbers had reached 700. Enrolment at both the Mussoorie colleges

dropped to about one –third of the pre-partition figure and within the year it was plain that the

two could no longer exist independently. Amalgamation followed at the start of 1949. Thus

ended the long and honourable history of St. Fidelis', begun in 1863 with twenty-nine orphans.

Even with the pooling of resources St. George's operated at a loss for a time. Three of the six

Brothers were over sixty and taking a full share of responsibility, while Bro. Frigidian Byrne,

Superior and Principa, remained at work in spite of serious ill-health . The places of may former

pupils, Catholics, now went to pupils of other fiaths, a very necessary step if the College was to

remian viable. At Coonoor, now known as St. Joseph's Boy's High School, the number of

boarders decreased with resultant financial loss and it was only by exercising the greatest

economy that Bro. Ritchie managed to keep community and school afloat through 1949, at the

end of which period there were six Brothers and 185 pupils of whom sixty were boarders. Dehra

Dun was the only Patrician School with its own estate and a very large outlay on new buildings

due to increased demands for admission.

Financial hardship and the rigiours of the climate rather than physical danger were the lot of the

Madras community where five Brothers did heroic work caring for 25o orphans. The

compensation received from the proceeds of the land sale proved very inadequate and appeals

for enhancement availed nothing. The situation was worsened by the decision of the Madras

Government to reduce the grant given to such schools, rendering it likely that St. Patrick's would

be a permanent charge on the Province. Then in 1949 Archbishop Mattias remembered that he

had earlier promised five acres to the Bishop of Mylapore, under whose spirituals jurisdiction the

orphanage was. These had to be taken from the Brothers' portion.

On 15th February 1948 three Brothers ansered the call of the Rt. Rev. John Tirranzi, an old

friend and former chaplain at Mussoorie, for a temporary take=-voer of St. Mary's Secondary

School at Aden. The community was drawn from two Provinces, Bros. McEvoy and Keely from

India, Oliver Healy from Ireland. On arrival the three found that conditions were worse than

anything previously known in either Province. climate was most inhospitable with great and

monotonous heat, school conditions left much to be desired and living conditions were next to

impossible. The 230 pupils came from a variety of nationalities. Only by an economy bordering

on privation could St. Mary's be make to pay its way, and the community was in continual need

of financial assistance from India. In January 1949 Bros. Aloysius Smith, Fergus Fleming and

Ambrose Fitzpatrick (Snr.) replaced the pioneers. Smith used afterwards tell how one pupil was

accompanied daily to school by a huge dog which lay quietly by the boy's desk until anyone

attempted to approach that spot.

Three young Brothers arrived from Ireland in February 1949, Clement O'Connor, Donatus

Gorman and Sylvan Coffey, all trained and finally professed. In August Bro. Xavier Henderson

was appointed Provincial, with Bros. Commins, Masterson, McEvoy and James Foley to assist

him. An early decision was to withdraw from Aden at the end of 1949, but the Prefect Apostolic–

now Bishop-Elect–invoked the aid of Propaganda and withdrawal was deferred for a year. Bros.

Henderson, Commins and O' Brien were in Ireland for the Tenth General Chapter in April 1950

where the chief business was the election of a Superior General in succession to Bro. Finbarr

Downes who had died on 1st October 1949. Bros. Dermot Dunne, the Acting-Superior General,

was elected with Sylvanus Commins as Second Assitant. In August Bro. Xavier Henderson was

re-appointed Provincial with Mc Evoy, Masterson, O' Brien and Foley forming his Council. Bro.

Gannon, Assistant General from 1946, returned in November, replacing Bro. Commins. In

December the two-year old Patrician connection Ill-health incapacitated Bro. Frigidian Byrne for

much of 1951, the result of his exertions at. St. George's over the crissis years while Bro.

Dorotheus Byrne II with the help of three Brothers and ten laymen worked wonders in keeping

the Adyar establishment afloat. The building was the finest in the Province, but without the funds

needed to keep it in repair. There was an annual loss of Rs. 6,000/- and government talked of

cutting aid by 50%. The grant of Rs. 18/- per month due at years's end was often available only

in part because of the state of government coffers. Some regulations of the Madras Education

Department did not help, the provision for transfer to new management, Christain or non-

Christain, of school deemed "unstisfactory" seemed particularly penal. Of 277 pupils on roll at

year's end only 22 were non-resident. Bro. Dermot Dunne arrived at Lahore for General

Visitation on 7th November and spent three months in the Pvovince, finding things for the most

part satisfactory and attributing in his report "difficulties and much of the weakness in Rule

observance to the insuffient number of Brothers in each house." The remedy, he pointed out,

was "a serious attempt implement Article 23 of the Acts of the Tenth General Chapter and he

congratulated the Province on the decission to seek local vocations. He encouraged efforts to

acquire academic qualifications and hoped that Brothers under forty would set themselves to

obtain a working knowledge of vernacular languages.

In his report to his Council Bro. Dermot showed awareness of the difficulties facing the Indian

Province, difficulties compounded by religous tension, the influx of non-Christan pupils–one-

sixth of Lahore's boarders were Moslem–and the difficuties in crossborder communication.

Examination paperwere expected to appear in the vernacular only. Clergy were divided on the

issue of admission of non-Christains to church schools, claiming it meant the exclusion of

poorer Catholics. He pointed with regreat to the neglect–not alwyas unavoidable– of canonical

regulation on buildings and building projects. Two communities had undertaken large and costly

improvements without reference to the home authorities, a loan had been made to a dishop

without authorisation and without any clear understanding on the repayment process. There

were too many servants and reduction in the number was difficult. St. Gerge's had been saved

only by the closure of St. Fidelis, enrolment had fallen drastically and the financial position

remained perilous. If the recent slow improvement in pupil numbers and funds should prove

merely temporary closures must inevitably follow.

The Capuchin Superior and the military commander were instrucmental in bringing Patricians to

meerut in January 1953. Because the Old Soldiers' Home which was to be monastery and

school needed renovation and because he already had expertise in the provision of

accommodation, Bro. Ignatius O'Brien was chosen to head the new venture and received two

experienced colleagues as assistants, C.P. Mahony and E.T. Dunne. Twenty-five years later

O'Brien told their story:

"We were full of good cheer as we trundled along with truck-loads of old desks and blackboards

from St. fidelis. We reported to the Military and were told that the Old Soldiers' Home had been

demolished. We called to the Convent and received only a handful of the promised one

hundered boys. We weent to the Friary and found that our mentor was in Italy. The parish priest,

Fr. Amadeus, told us in real St. Francis' style not to worry. We could stay with him, say our

prayers in church, take class on his veranda and have our games in the yard of the church.

Accordingly we erected our school Notice Board at the church gate, set out our desks on the

verandas of the Friary and St. Mary's Academy was born with twenty- four pupils in classes I, II

and III. In the evenings after school we sought out alternative sites, and after months of

searching we found one–fifteen acres, walled in and centrally situated. It had just one

drawback–it consisted of five seprate units: two old hotels, two plots formerly used for cultivation

and a disused military area. After summer vacation school reopened with 170 pupils in the

former Volga Hotel:.

At the same period four Brothers and ten lay teachers taught 301 boys at Adyar, while five

Brothers and twenty–four layment worked with one thousand at Lahore. Adyar had at least the

consolation of a part in the celebrations held in January 1953 to commerorate the sixteenth

centenary of the arrival of St. Thomas the Apostle, during which it accommodated three

bishops, their secretaries and scroes of pilgrims. The land sold for housing in 1947 was now a

developing suburb, its residents seeking a co-educational school for their children. The Brothers

responded with a nursery school under a banyan tree close by the old building. Just two pupils

and one teacher to beging with, but such was the genesis of St. Michael's Academy, Adyar.

About the same time Bro. Henderson was racking his brains for means to provide funds for the

purchsase of the Villa Santa Cruz at Coonoor in a fourth attempt at a juniorate/novitate for the

Province. Unaware that the Superior General was himself straining every resource to expand

the Irish Juniorate at Tullow he worte that Provincial funds were at an all-time low and that only

the generosity of other houses enabled two huge building projects to go ahead at Dehra Dun

and Lahore. At the latter place alone a residence for the Brothers would Cost Rs. 104,000/- Bro.

McEvoy was then in Kerala, the most Catholic of the Indian States and the only one with a

Communist Government, seeking vocations and finding that the people were totally unfamiliar

with the concept of a teaching Brothershood. Their schools were run by the clergy or were

parish schools taught by lay teachers, but he found bishops, priests and headmasters

universally welcoming and hospitalble. After several visits and many interviews with parents,

possible candidates, teachers an clergy he selected seven boys aged fourteen to seveteen for a

three-year period of study and preparation beginning on the Feast of St. John the Baptist 1953

at the newly- rented Villa Santa Cruz. All were intelligent and willing candidate; in general

education at leas equal to those entering the Irish Juniorate from the Better National Schools,

probably more advanced in mathematics, science and general Knowledge. That their studies

must now be pursured through English would represent a major difficulty. Malayalam was not in

use in any existing Patrician school, and the aspirants' previous acquaintance with English had

been confined to a little reading in that language. They would also be taught the rudiments of at

least one overnacular language. The long process of Indianisation must begin, helped along by

prayer, careful teaching and painstaking recruitment work.

In August 1953 Bro. Ritchie became Provincial with Henderson, Gannon, Masterson and

McEvoy forming his Council. Henderson returned to Lahore where the parish school was in dire

straits. The Brothers felt that they should themselves have taken on this good work, but since

lack of numbers ruled this out it was decided that in addition to the Rs. 600/- already given for

1954 an annual granting- aid would be someting. After consulations with the Provincial a figure

of Rs. 3,000/- was fixed upon to begin in 1955. In January 1954 two temporary professed, Bros.

Ignatius O'Rourke and Gerard Breen, came from Ireland. The Superior General, Bro. Dermot

Dunne, arrived from Australia on his second visitation tour in January 1955. He had been

hospitalised in Sydney before Christmas and now in February was again so unwell that he

delegated Bro. Henderson to complete the visitatrion for him. By mid-March he was able to

undertake the return trip to Ireland, leaving by the Nilgris Night Express and survining a train

crash and a seven hour delay on the way to Madras. From there he travelled in two stages by

cargo plane to Bombay arriving on St. Patrick's Day in time to meet the Strathaird on which he

had travelled to Australia five months earlier.

The novitiate house opened with four novices in 1955. Two scholastics arrived in December

from Ireland, John Baptist O'Reilly and Livinus McGree. Bros. Gannon and Gorman were the

delegate shosen to travel to the Eleventh General Chapter with the Provincial. The Indian

administration when announced had one notable omission, the name of Bro. Masterson, an

ever-present since 1923. Bro. Ritchie was agian Provincial, Henderson, Gannon, McEvoy and

Bernardine Ryan the Assistants. A temporary professed, Malachy English, replaced Bro.

Gorman, retained in Ireland. On Christmas Eve three novices, Bros. A.J. Aloysius, K.T. Pius and

K.M. Albert, made first profession of vows, the first fruits of Bros. McEvoy's faith-filled efforts.

On 6th January 1957 Bros. Gannon and English began work at Christ the King School at Jhansi

in response to repeated requests from Bishop Fenech. At the parish office they met Bro. George

Pathinavil, a member of a diocesan congregation. Within a few months george expressed a

wish to transfer and with his bishop's consent entered the Patrician Juniorate at Coonoor on 12 th

September and the Novitiate on 22nd December 1957. On 15th June Bro. Alphonsus Carr had

been relased from a long and painful illness caused by ulceration of the stomach. A mature man

and a trained teacher on entering at St. Fidelis' in 1925 he had been a zealous religious and a

capable teacher who made the spititual welfare of his charges his chief concern. Most of his

working life had been spent at St. Fidelis' apart from terms as superior at Coonoor and Madras.

He bore his final illness with wonderful patience; indeed for self-sacrifice he can have had few

equals in any active Institute.

On 5th January 1958 the Provincial issued a circular which contained inter alia a directive from

the Regime that communities were not to use hotel accommodation for summer vacations.

Instead they were to go to Mussoorie "as had been the custom down the years" One superior

seems to have found this unduly restrictive and took particular exception to the reference to the

Mussoorie "Custom." In a strongly-worded letter to the Superior General he denied that any

such sustom existed, showed how hotles were preferable and cheaper for small communities,

and declared that the Regime's informant in the matter of the Mussoorie custom had been guilty

"of a deliberate lie." He repeated this in a letter to the Provincial, but agreed to abide by the

directive. Health problems were very much on the Provincial's mind at Easter. Bro. Bergin was

recuperating from a six-week-long illness when Bro. Henderson was hospitalised with

circulatory problems. Bro. Dooley was forbidden by his doctor to teach or exert himself, but

remained every day in his school office at Dehra Dun. Bro. McGree, only two years in India, had

developed blood pressure problems which required his return to Ireland for treatment. Almost

the only good news was that the Archbishop had given permission for a new Juniorate at Adyar,

where St. Patrick's contined to survive on the generosity of the Province. An intense heat wave

caused many deaths on the plains and trees died of drought even on the hills at Mussoorie.

In October Bros. Keely and McGree returned from Ireland accompanied by the Superior

General and Bro. Kenneth Deegan, a temporary professed destined for the Province. Bro.

McGree's illness had stemmed from a growth on the nape of his neck requiring delicate surgery

for its removal. At the close of his visitation Bro. Francis Redmond stressed the importance of

the spiritual exercises for the religious life, asked for punctuality in the matter of the half- yearly

returns and urged the provision of a house of studies in the vicinity of a good university and

teacher training college. He forsaw benefits from a share training and congratulated the

Province on the work done in juniorate and novitiate. Senior girl students were not to be enrolled

at Meerut and he was critical of the conditions under which the community lived and worked at

Jhansi. As to holidays he would not insist on a gathering of communities at Mussooire in term

time, recommending that with the Provincial's permission a community rent a house in an

approved district. His closing words were:"I forbid the spending of summer vacations in hotels."

Enrolment statistics constituted an intersting aspect of the Superior General's report. At year's

end the Adyar schools had 400 pupils of whom 55% were were Catholic, at Coonoor the

proportion was 52%, the highest thereafter was Jhansi 21%, Mussoorie with 16.8%, followed by

Meerut 4%, Dehra Dun and Lahore with 2% each. Comparison with the figures for third level

Catholic institutions serves only to indicate the preponderance of the poor among Indi's 6.4

million Catholics. In the same year the Republic had twenty-nine third-level college for men with

close on 27,000 students of whom only 0.13% were catholic. On the last day of January 1959

bro. Ritchie purchased six acres at clement town, Dehradun, For the erection of a novitiate

house, but prior commitments dictated that the work be delayed. However, the month of March

saw the opening of a new chapel and chaplains quartered at St. Patrick's,, Adyar. on 24th

October Bishop evangelistic of Meerut wrote to the new provincial, bro. OBrien, pointing out:

The number of catholic children in your schools (in this riocese) is very small. It is not that there

are no catholic children in Dehra Dun and meerut. There are many, but they cannot join the

large English schools which you have in these places. I request that in both places you provide

for the education of all catholic boys, at lest from the time they leave the schools run for them by

the Sisters. No Catholic boy should be devarred from a Catholic education for financial reasons.

This paragraph contains, evidently, more than an advice.

Apart from the ting in the tail the paragraph implicity challenged the provincial to find Brothers

equipped to teach in the vernacular. Construction work on the first of three planned extensions

to st.Marys, Meerut, began on7th January 1960. A little later Coonoor undertook the erection of

a college chapel and auditorium. On March 6th the effort to maintain a presence at Jhansi was

abandoned in face of repeated failure by the diocese to make working and living conditions

tolerable. Towards the end of the year Bro. Francis brgan general Visitation, a little early in view

of the General Chapter due in 1962. He was at meerut on the 12th December to open the new

block and to hear a summary of the Academys history from Bro. Dunne . There were then eight

hundred and forty-four pupils. In an historical account of St. Josephs, Coonoor, prepared for

him, probably by Bro. Darcy, the following occurs:

Not only catholics, but hindus, parsees and Jews, seek admission to our schools. While working

to preserve the Catholic atmosphere of their schools the Brothers have shown any sign of

partiality or its opposite to any sign of partiality or its opposite to any pupiof any religion. In

perfect good fellowship and amity in the Brothers schools everywhere in india cannot but

produce good effects in the later livee of students. Also, non-Catholics ,especially those who

voluntarily follow the holy Scripture classes, gsin a clear idea of Christian teaching, and

afterwards at the University, in the professions and in business are able to mix on equal terms

with others of all shndes of opinion.

Franicis continued to garner the relevant statistics, which of course he needed for his annual

and other reports to Rome. In 1960 Bro. Obrien prepared a summary of priorities, setting out

three main problems: the need to meet state requirements on qualifications; the need to provide

schools for the poor; and the development of the formation programme. All Indian States had

agreed to ungrade their school and to appoint only trained teachers. A new type of Higher

Secondary School would cater for the equivalent of First Arts and First Science in the

Universities, the teachers holding the equnivalent masters' qualifications. Teachers of Classes

Eight to Eleven would hold primary degrees. In the previous year eight Irish Brothers had been

released for studies, full or part-time to acquire the necessary qulifications. This though was but

a beginning and it was difficult to see how it could be maintained over the period required. Lack

of Brothers greatly handicapped the formation programme which required extra manpower for

the Juniorate and scholasticate. There were then six temporary professed Indin-born Brothers,

four at novitiate stage and twenty aspirants in the Juniorate . provision for the use of the

vernacular was another necessity. Hit Grace of meerut had been gratified to learn that Indion

Brothers were being prepared for work in the schools, but could he be asked to wait a full three

yers until they had qualified? Even then they could not be expected to run vernacular schools

unaided. The few experienced Brothers sufficiently versed in the vernacular could hardly be

spared from their existing commitments. The summary concluded: we are so short of Brothers

that we meet with frustration every way we turn."

The superior General funded the purchase of a bungalow and three acres of land at Clement

Town in the Doon Valley in March 1961 to serye as a novitiate. Whitbank Castle was thereby

freed for the temporary professed. In July a subsiday of $20,000 from the S. congregation of

Propagand reslted in construction of a Juniorate-cum-Scholasticate at Ayder. ON the 12th of the

same month the provincial summarized the progress of the indianisation process, putting the

position very bluntly. Over eight years an average of ten aspirants had been admitted each

year, but there had been only five successes in the Senior Cambridge Examination. He paid

warm tribute to the indomitable spirit with which Bro. McEvoy maintained his efforts, teaching

two(juniorate) classes having very little English, supervising and organizing, canvassing when

he can reach on it."The drawback was the lack of help for the temporary professed .Bro.McEvoy

and long been released for the information programme, but the extra help now needed was

accompanied by a circular pointing out that while young Brothers had been sent to communities

where they might more readily obtain teaching qualifications this had not been done without

considerable inconvenience, and in some cases actual hardship." Late in 1962 and through the

kindness of the Christian Brothers a request was received to open a school in New

Delhi.Bros.Brennan and golden arrived from Ireland in October, just too late to witness the

opening of the new auditorium at coonoor, but in time to join the celebrations marking the

Golden Jubilee of the Lahore foundation. The one survinging member of that first community,

Bro. Stanislus Martin Bergin, was a semi-invalid in distant Munntrath, the same house from

which the Province had taken its begininings. Final statistics for the year showed forty-six finally

professed and seventeen temporary professed working in ten houses and three Brothers in

Teacher Training College. In the first days of 1963 four Brothers and the Provincial took up

residence in huts allotted to hem by the Army on Parade Road, Delhi. The 8 th January brought

the formal opening, with classes held in tents. The gound floor of a new building had been

compleged by July and classes moved in after the summer holidays, Thus began Mount St.

Mary's. Enrolment at years's end was 275, of which over 70% came from the various brances of

the defence forces.

On 2nd February 1963 Bro. Ritchie and eight novics moved to Clement Town. Nine Indian

Scholastics, housed at Galway Cottage under Bro. Gannon, now took over Whytbank Castle.

The same month saw the new Juniorate opered at Adyar for eleven aspirants. On 17th

December the Provincial listed prioristies which included completion of the school building and

the provision of a residence at Delhi, extension to the novitate, payment of the debt remaining

on the Madras juniorate and repayment of the loan provided by the Superior General towards

purchase of the ;loan provided by the Superior General towards purchase of the novitiate

bungalow. In January 1964 Bro. Ritchie went to St. Geroge's and Bro Sylvan Coffey began an

eleven-year term as Novice Master. Work on extending the novitiate house began and the

purchase of al well-watered plot made vegetable growing possible, ensuring a large saving of

funds. On the 21st April Bro. George died at dyar where he had worked since 1957. An able man

and a hard worker he had made a big success of the orphanage's catering department,

improving standards while reducing expense. He was devoutly riligious and most charitable to

the poor, a wonderful example of what an Idian Patrician might be. Bro. Francis Redmond again

visited the Province in November-Demcember 1964 and was pleased to note the presence of

sevety-one finally professed Brothers, four of whom were Indian-born and fully qualified for

school work. Of the nineteen temporary professed only two were Irish. There were in addition

five novices and thirty Juniors.

The new novitiate chapel was blessed and formally opened on Easter Sunday 1965. Fr. Daniel,

in the course of the ceremony, recalled that Clement Town had begun as a colny founded by his

brother Capuchin, the late Fr. Clemetn, in the 1930s. founded by his brother Capuchin, the late

Fr. Clement, in the 1930s. The mustard seed had grown and now possessed three religous

houses. Speical tribute was paid to Bro. Leo.Dunney, designer and makier of the alter. In

August a new provincial administration took office, James Fole, Ignatius O'Brien, Sylvan Coffey,

John Fitzpatrick and Conrad Long. The term of postulancy was extended to six months and the

novitiate to eighteen. Because of long-standing difficulty with border-crossings and uncertainty

of communications it was agreed that the Lahore community should no longer form part of the

Province but be placed directly under the Superior General and Council, the change to come

into effect at the New Year.

The requirement that foreign nationals register with the authorities and difficulties attaching to

the return of missionaries gave rise to fears for church schools and, more profitably, to further

emphasis on Indianisation. The year 1966 also removed two starwarts of the ancien regime in

the persons of Louis Dineen and Bonaventure Logue. One had spent sixty-three years in India,

the other fifty-four; one was outgoing and cheerful, the other more retiring and publicity-shy.

One loved walking, the other tennis. It is told of Dineen that not alone did he play that game into

his eighties , but that the great desire of his retirement was t find a Patrician able to contest a

set with his nephew, Fred Dineen, then serving with the Christain Brothers in India. On 25 th May

at the age of eighty-five he succumbed to a paralytic stroke after two weeks of unconsciousness

and became the only Patrician to have an obituary tribute printed on the sport's page of a Dublin

evening newspaper. Bro. Logue's death on 17th November at the age of eighty-two was

hastened by the effects of abdominal surgery on a weakened heart.

In November the Superior General was in Pakistan and later visited the Indian communities,

noting that ghese now had nine finally professed Indian Brothers and twelve under temporary

vows. He confessed himself distressed that the Juniorate at Adyar lacked a means of transport,

a water pump and, worst of all, fans. His more general recommendation were early provision of

schools for the

poor, and thorough instruction in their faith for Roman Catholic pupils.

The 25th January 1967 marked the arrival of yet another Kilkenny man in India, this time

Bro. Frederick T. Muldowney, and two days later Bro. Pius O'Leary took up duty at Lahore,

having previously served in Ireland, Australia and Kenya. It seems that during the Superior

General's visit the possibility of withdrawal from Lahore had been mentioned for on 10 th May

Bro. Keely informed him of a unanimous decision to remain, Bros, Breen, Golden and O'Leary

were the others concerned. Twenty-nine expatriates and twenty five nations constituted the

strength of the Indian Province proper in mid- 1967. There were no novices then, but five

entered on 22th December. In October Bro. Norbert Phelan on his way back to Australia held

annual visitation at Lahore and found the bishop to tall opposed to any suggestion for

withdrawal. The National Conference of the India Hierarchy at its November meeting strongly

urged the further Indianisation of religious institutes and schools. Bro. Ambrose Fitzpatrick

(Senior) who had been on home leave from Pakistan returned to India while Bro. Bernardine

Ryan went to Ireland in poor health, dying there of cancer.

Bros. Bergin and John Fitzpatrick were the delegates chosen to accompany the

Provincial to the Thirteenth General Chapter at Tullow, the first post-Vatican Two Chapter of

Renewal. Debt on St. Mary's Meerut, was successfully cleared, though the Provincial had no

more than time for on long breath before borrowing again for the other St. Mary's at Delhi, Even

at Rs. 200,000 he felt he could not refuse as the results of the school's first essay at the

Cambridge Examination and produced eighteen First Divisions, nine Seconds and four Thirds

from a class of thirty-two. At St. Patrick's, Adyar, a grant of Rs. 10,000financed the sinking of a

well, the purchase of a pump and the preparation of an area for cultivation. When the Chapter

representatives left for Ireland Bro. Aloysius A. J. took Bro. Fitzpatrick's place as Headmaster at

Coonoor, the second Indian born Brother to hold that position, Bro. Alphonsus Carr had been

the first. The post-Chapter appointments were John Fitzpatrick Provincials: Bros, Benedict

Mavelil, Ignatius O'Rourke, James Foley and V.P. Bernard. Assistants. Bro. K.V. Pius was

Provincial Bursar. Three significant and very welcome pointers.

An early decision that aspirants complete their secondary course before novitiate

brought beneficial results in that novices were better prepared to appreciate the object of

spiritual formation. The numbers now taking theological and scripture studies at third level

provided Brothers equipped to help in the formation process, to provide catechetical instruction

in schools and to vive leadership in community affairs. In December the Province saw for the

first time six Brothers make final profession together, and not an Irishman among them! In the

community appointments announced in December 1969 Bro . V.P. Bernard became superior at

the Orphanage, Bro. Benedict Mavelil superior and director at the Juniorate and Bro. Aloysius

A.J. Headmaster at Coonoor. At Adyar indeed initial formation was entirely in local hands, all ten

community members being Indian-born. Bro. Dooley's transfer from Dehra Dun where he had

been Headmaster to be Superior at Meerut was the subject of comment in the Dehra Dun

Express:

" With profound sorrow, even despair, we report the transfer of Bro .A. P. Dooley, popular and

revered Principal of far-famed St. Joseph's Academy, after a twelve-year tenure in that high

office, the longest and most eventful in the history of that great institution. This is a big shock to

the citizens of this town to whom he had endeared himself by selfless service and sterling

qualities of head and heart. It defies understanding and. imagination how and why the Catholic

Education Authorities, functioning under the aegis of St. Patrick's Order, took this unpalatable

decision in regard to Bro. Dooley.

A welcome change, marking anew and progressive trend in the policies and thinking

trend in the policies and thinking of this well-established Irish education hierarchy, is the

appointment for the first time in its long history of an Indian Bother to be Principal of the Madras

School, their parent institution in India. Bro. Bernard is young, energetic and well- qualified for

this position. His promotion to the post of Principal represents a break-through. He can be relied

on to give a good account of himself in his new and responsible assignment."

From 1953 St. George's College had paid the salaries of staff at a small Hindi-medium

school on the Mission Compound at

Mussoorie and in 1969 Fr. Linus, OFM., Cap asked that the Brothers take over the

school. The temporary professed at Whytbank Castle provided the teachers; Bros. Berchmans

Alphonsus and Aloysius A. being among the earliest involved. In late October Bro. Denis

Lomasney, Superior General, arrived from Australia on the fourth stage of a General Visitation.

His impression of Mussoorie and of St. George's are worth noting:

"Mussoorie is spoken of as Queen of the Hill Station, a Summer holiday resort for the

people of the plains, though not many can now afford it . St. George's is beautifully situated

about 6,000 feet up. The higher mountains look beautiful at

night when the houses, perched at all angles, put on their lights. Down below us is the

Doon Valley, the Jumna and the Ganges on either side and smaller rivers running through. It is

not the holiday season just now, but the days are bright and sunny and the nights quite cool.

Our Brothers have run the boarding school here for the past ninety years. It is very well known

over North India and seems to dominate in games over the region. There are several school in

the area English- medium school like ours. Only ours and two others are run by religious. I

visited a school for Tibetan refugee children nearby and was most impressed. Tibetan children

are very diligent and respectful. We have a few here with several from Thailand, some from

Kuwait, Malaysia and elsewhere. Only a handful in the whole school are Catholics, but all are

very nice Time was when all boarders were Catholic.

Why do we keep on? All I can say at this stage in that we try to give witness to

Christianity and to break down barriers. It calls for faith to spend a lifetime in work like this. I

have the greatest admiration for the Brothers here: most are Irish, but Indian Brothers must

soon take over. Their number increases, thank God.

The post-Vatican Two revision of the Constitution provided for Provincial Chapters and

Indian held its first such from 12th to 23rd December 1969. The Superior General sent a later of

encouragement and good wishes. In his recommendation at the close of Visitation Bro. Denis

drew attention of the cultivation of tranquility in personal and in liturgical prayer, and especially

to the responsibility of superiors for the correction of faults. On personal and community poverty

he stressed the need for accurate keeping of accounts and strongly recommended the Juniorate

and Orphanage at Adyar to the fraternal concern of individuals and communities. Not the least

of his recommendation was a plea for immediate action on community annals and the

preservation of archives. "Who will know anything of the history of each house in a few years"

he asked. Well he might!

The Provincial Chapter Statutes were circulated in March 1970 and included a full

programme of religious formation. The short life of St. Patrick and history of the Province which

followed was the joint work of Bros. Sebastian Darcy and Boniface John. In May Bro. Denis

provided a condensed account of his first overseas visitation tour and paid tribute to the Indian

communities and to those at Adyar and Lahore in particular. The latter he thought a foremost

bastion of Christianity in Pakistan and regretted the looming possibility of withdrawal. At Adyar

he found the same spirit of cheerfulness and fellowship which he had encountered at Aitape and

noted other similarities. Archbishop Arulappa of Madras-Mylapore had given the Orphanage the

use of a large farm twelve miles from the city and Bro. John Kampyil had taken on its

management. Bro. Vincent McCarthy, Vicar General, visited Lahore, Delhi and Iten during the

Christmas 1970 break from school duties in Ireland.

In April 1971 Bro. O'Leary became Superior at Lahore with Bros. Breen and Forde in

charge of the High and Junior Schools respectively. Bro. Golden was back in Ireland, and in

summer Bro. Keely went there for medical treatment. A bereavement caused the full burden of

school work to fall on two Brothers, but with typical generosity Keely cut his convalescence

short and rushed back to help. October brought Provincial appointments, Bros. O'Brien, V.P.

Bernard, John Fitzpatrick, Benedict Mavelil, and Sylvan Coffey. Profits from the Adyar farm

were slashed by a prolonged mansoon but V.P. Bernard launched a crusade to provide funds

for additional classrooms at St. Michaels's as a means of indirectly helping the Orphanage,

parts of which were so badly in need of repair that the rains made the visitors' parlour into a

swimming pool. On 16th December the Second Provincial Chapter met at Delhi amid rumblings

of war with Pakistan. In January 1972 Bro. Denis again held visitation and while finding

prospects encouraging deemed it necessary to issue a warning against the over- free use of

alcohol in celebration, stating bluntly in his report " We have reparation to make" He vigorously

seconded the efforts of Bro. Aloysius to re-introduce technical subject at the Adyar Orphanage

and travelled to Rome in an attempt tot obtain finance for rebuilding. Noting the presence of

Indian Brothers on all school staffs but on he left with high hopes for the future of the Province

and paid tribute to "the generous help and service given by men advanced in years", citing Bros.

Masterson at eighty -five and Darcy at ninety as fine examples. Plans by the Irish Provincial to

visit Lahore were frustrated by war and internal turmoil and when Bro. O'Leary's health gave

way appeals went out to Ireland. India and Australia for help. Bro. Frigidian Byrne generously

volunteered to transfer from India and the Province arranged to release him at end of 1972.

O'Leary entered an Irish hospital in June and James Golden returned from Ireland. The

Presentation Sisters at Lismore, Co. Waterford, having read Bro. Denis's account of conditions

at Adyar forwarded a donation of L200 and the Irish houses responded to Bro. Brennan's

appeal for funds to purchase musical instruments for his Orphan's Orchestra.

Having given forty of his sixty two years to India Bro Raymond Byrne died in hospital on

26th January 1973. Though in poor health he had helped with administrative work at St. Joseph's

Dehra Dun, up to the previous day. A gentle, sociable and dignified man he had been liked and

respected everywhere and his interment at Mussoorie was very largely attended in spite of a

heavy snow blizzard. Appointments for the year showed that five of eight communities were

headed by Indian-born Patricians; indeed the only posts remaining in Irish hands were those of

Provincial Novice Master and two local superiorships. The provision of a residence at Delhi was

undertaken-until now the community had made do with a small bungalow- and a new

administration block was completed at Meerut. In May Bro. Keely celebrated fifty year of

profession at Lahore and in June Bro. Forde went on leave to Ireland. In October Lahore and

Kenya were established as a Region in order to give each a voice in the General Chapter. The

same month saw Pakistan declare its intention to nationalise school and abolish fees for junior

classes. It was an anxious time for the community. Later in the year Bro. Marcellus Broderick

Regional superior in Kenya visited Lahore and availed himself. of the opportunity to share in a

renewal course organised for the northern communities in India.

An invitation from Bishop Toppa of Jalpaiguri to establish an English-medium school in a

military area of his diocese was seen by him and the Provincial as an opportunity to help the

Catholic workers on the tea-plantation of West Bengal. Church policy favored provision of

schooling for the poorer classes in rural areas and in the new industrial centres rather than for

the better-off of the cities. For Patricians this necessarily meant supporting poor school on the

income from fee- paying colleges, preferably in the immediate neighborhood. Since the military

authorities wanted an English-medium school the present seemed a likely opportunity to further

both purposes. In December Bros. O'Brien and Dunne visited the area and recommended the

attempt.

While superior at Adyar over the previous three years Bro. Aloysius had tirelessly

exerted himself to find ways and means of rebuilding St. Patrick's in time for centenary year.

Time and again he experienced disappointment with the aid-agencies but never gave up. Aided

by Bro. Boniface Kennedy he negotiated with the Archbishop for the legal transfer of title to the

Brothers and by Judicious planning raised enough funds for immediate repairs. Just before his

transfer to Mussorrie he received the good news of large-scale aid from an agency at Aachen

and this, with donations from elsewhere, enabled Bro. Gerard, his successor, to undertake and

carry out the necessary rebuilding. An adjustment to recruitment and formation policies saw

admission age raised to sixteen with a resultant slow down in receptions to the novitiate. In

February 1974 Bros. Dunne and Mahony took over the one year-old St. James' School in the

Binnaguri Cantonment on an experimental basis and were given temporary quarters in an army

but. The venture all but came to a premature and on a night in April when a storm blew the roof

off their sleeping quarters but by the grace of God both were unharmed.

On 3rd April Bro. Sebastian Darcy, the oldest member of the Congregation, died at

Coonoor after only a few days illness. He had been in India from 1919 and at Coonoor from

1949, teaching English, French and History to the senior classes. He founded The Collegian

and was its editor for many years as well as being involved with the Marorite, writing editorials,

articles and verse for each. Drama and debate were other interests of the highest excellence.

Swimming and gardening were among his favoured pursuits. He was actively engaged in school

almost to the end, teaching and taking his turn at other duties as he had ever done. His death

reduced the community to four, two of whom were actively pursuing higher level studies, leaving

just two to cope with the main burden of running a school for three hundred boarders.

To V.P. Bernard fell the distinction of being the first Indian-born Brother to attend a

General Chapter as delegate of his Province. This was followed in October by his becoming the

first Indian-born Provincial. In new appointments announced in November Bro. Coffey became

superior at Dehra Dun and was succeeded as novice master by Bro. Benedict. Bro. Alphonsus

Thanicken took responsibility for the Scholasticate. Bro. Duffy, named to leadership at Delhi, did

not live to take up tat appointment. A heart ailment from which he had suffered for some years

brought about his death in a matter of hours on the morning of 11th December 1974.

A letter from Bro. Gerard at St. Patrick's, Adyar, indicating a few of the problems

pressing on the Orphanage brought a sum of L 700 Irish collected in Patrician schools across

that Province. Almost as poorly situated were Dunne and Mahony at Binnaguri when again left

homeless by an April storm. This time the Army gave them shelter in the quarters reserved for

Junior Officers. On 7th October Bro. Robert Ruane, Superior General since 1974 arrived to hold

General Visitation and to participate in marking What The Hindu newspaper called a "100-year

Record of Service." Adyar was the venue for the main celebration over two days open-air

liturgies, a centenary exhibition, drama, arthletic events and the opening by Mr. M. Karunadinhi,

Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, of the new Centenary Building conceived by Bro. Aloysius and

brought to reality by Bro. Gerard. A bright and well-produced Centenary Magazine served as

souvenir of the occasion. Visitors from ten countries attended the celebration.

The Provincial, disturbed at the non-provision of sites for school and residence at

Binnaguri, reminded the Army authorities and Bishop Toppa of the original conditions and

threatened withdrawal. In February 1976 Bro. Mahony was informed by the Army that he could

no longer remain in a restricted area, though it did not explain just how he had become a

security risk. Even more strangely Joe Carroll was admitted as replacement! The Province set

something of a precedent this year by placing Bro. Vincent Maveili in a non - Patrician school,

St, John's at Janghetti Meerut.

On 2nd February the Superior General notified Bishop Trinidade of Lahore, a former pupil

at St. George's that the Brothers would leave St. Anthony's on the 31st December. On the 25th he

wrote again confirming that the decision stood, but that in response to the bishop's appeal

withdrawal had been deferred to 31st May 1977 Before either date the Indian Province had lost

two men to death. On St. Patrick's Day 1976 Bro. Callistus Bergin was found dead in the chapel

at New Delhi and on 11th April Bro. Sylvan Coffey died on the tennis court at Dehra Dun. Both

had been in indifferent health for some years, Callistus having twice undergone surgery for a

throat complaint, while Sylvan had known heart trouble at various time during his years at

Clement Town. Both originated in very much the same part of County Laois and each gave

dedicated and distinguished service to the Province in which the greater part of his life was

spent. Bro. Coffey's mother died at the family home only sixteen days after year son's passing.

Life yet pursued its course and in March thirty-eight acres were made available for school and

residence at Binnaguri, and in May contract was placed for the erection of a block of classrooms

at Dehra Dun. On the 29th of May Bishop Trinidad sought the Superior General's aid with the

founding of a new parish at Lahore. A retreat-cum-seminar for those under the age of fifty took

place at Adyar from 17th to 31st December.

Bros. Dunne and Carroll were busy with plans for a residence, a tube well and the

demarcation of the land newly acquired at Binnaguri, the latter needing a wall six hundred yards

long. Hopes for aid with all three projects, costing up to Rs. 500,000 were entertained but were

doomed to disappointment. The Province's schools came to the rescue. providing one lakh

each. St. Michael's just recently recognised by the State Education Department, needed a block

of classrooms, the necessary Rs. 800,000 to be provided by the Province, parents and friends.

In March the Superior General, in deference to a second appeal from the Pro-Nuncio at

Islamabad, consented to Bros. Byrne and Golden remaining at Lahore until year's end . In April

an intensive course for house captains in the northern school took place at Mussoorie. The

Province leadership team announced in May proved to be Bros. VP Bernard, Aloysius A.,

Alphonsus Thanicken, Benedict Mavelil and Ignatius O'Brien. On the 5 th of the month the

Province lost one of its oldest and most faithful servants in the death of Bro. Joseph Masterson

at Mussoorie. In frail health for much of his life he had continued to work long after he might

have retired to an old age of ease and dignity. His was a name forever to he associated with St.

Fidelis'; he had been at school there and on the staff until its absorption into St. George's

Economic recession and the consequent set-back to fund-raising efforts meant a shortfall in

funds for the extension to St. Michael's but with work on- going and a time limit to the

construction permit the schools again stinted themselves and permission was obtained for the

borrowing of four lakhs. Following closely on this emerged the need for classrooms and office

space at St. George's where some parts of the building were in poor shape. nothing having

been added or renewed over the previous twenty-five years.

In January 1978 Bro. A. Thanicken became the Province's first full time vocation

promoter, indicating a new approach to the selection process, so much so that of eighty

prospective candidates only twenty- five were invited to a special "Vocations camp" and only ten

selected for the juniorate. Meantime the man who had been the first to recruit Indian-born

candidates died at Coonoor Bro. Vincent McEvoy had been fifty-two years in India when called

to his reward on 28th April after two surgical operations and a paralytic stroke. A of faith energy

and generosity he began vocation recruitment in Kerala in 1953 Knowing nothing of the

language and working among people who had no concept of the Brother's vocation At the

Juniorate he undertook direction of a group of boys with little English and no experience of

western ways, and three years later sent four of them to the novitiate. He had begun the single

most important move in the history of the Province. His going was followed by that of Bro.

Fergus Fleming, in India since 1925. A fine teacher and a splendid sportsman, sympathetic,

friendly and approachable, when age and ill- health compelled retirement from the daily grind he

had devoted himself to researching and writing the history of the Indian Province and though he

did not live to complete that work he collected and set down much voluble material. He died at

Coonoor on 27th June 1978. In August, while Bro. Dunne was in hospital at Delhi recovering

from surgery, he was cheered by the news that the Irish Government was giving him L 5,000 to

purchase a tractor and farm machinery for Binnaguri. Bro. Aloysius had even move Ninmala

school to a new site and to introduce self- help projects for villagers in and about Barlowganj as

to receive 20,000 from the same sourse.

A seminar for School Principals in December 1978 worked on the clarification of aims

and obejctive, the increased admission of Catholic and of poorer pupils, a clear syllabus in

moral science, the greter integration of shool and local community, Te establishment of school

management community, the establishment of school management committees and the

development for a review process by which a school migh eveluate its performance. Community

and province appointments were brought forward to suit the earlier start to the acamedic year.

March was brightened by two opening ceremonies, that of the new Bro. Dineen Block at

Mussoorie on the 6th , and on 17th of a new school building for St. Michael's , now an Academy

and catering for the 10+2 system. In May the Provincial moved his office from Mussoorie to

Delhi September brought further good news for Bro. Aloysius in the shape of a second Irish

Government grant for his Mussoorie project. Only a few weeks later the Provincial. received an

approach from a small dioceesan Congregation, the Pune patrician brothers, for amalgamation

with the Province. He put the matter on the agenda for the Fourth Provincial Chapter already

arranged for Delhi in mid-December. The delegates to the Fifteenth General Chapter proved to

be Bros. Benedict, Alphonsus and Aloysius, another history-making moment in that so many

Indian-born members must give the assembly a wider grasp of realities and a new insight into

an ancient culture.

In 1980 St. James' School at Binnaguri benefited by recognition as a High School, by the

coming of the Note Dame Sisters to the staff and a move to a new site. As planned a Hindi-

medium School, St. Patrick's, followed. An auditorium to seat 900 was added at Delhi through

the efforts of Bro. Bernardine, his staff and pupils. On 30th June the General Chapter opened at

Tullow and pai ealrly tribute to the Province by choosing V.P. Bernard as an Assistant General.

the first such from his country and culture. The office carried with it sentence of six years

residence in Irelard. The office carried with it a sentence of six years residence in Ireland. The

20th August brought news of new Provincial Administration–Bris, Bebeductm Alphonsus,

Aloysius A, Ignatius O' Brien and Xavier. In October Bernard returned briefly to pick up wrinter

closthing he had left at Mussoorie . Bro. Joachim Guria became the first Patrician Principal of

the Nirmala School School which as a temporary professed he had helped to build.

In March 1981 the luck of the Irish ran out for Bro. Carroll; he was told to leave

Binnaguri–and Idnai. The same fate was to befall Bro. Dunne a few weeks later, but in the

meantime the Provincial had secured the return of Bro. Bernard in a temporay capacity from

Ireland. The charm worked, for shortly after arrival Bernard secured a temporary lifting of both

orders and later the concession that the "undesirables" might remain in India but must leave

Minnaguri by March 1982. Meanwhile it had been arranged that two Pune Patricians should

enter the juniorate at Coonoor, but but further progress was slowed by their bishop's wish to

renegotiate previously agreed terms for a school. Ireland's Government again came to the aid of

the Nirmala project with a grant of 27,000 and the Sacred Heart sent Sr. Gemina to join the

staff.

Bro. Patrick Lovegrove, Superior Generl, was in the Province from January to march

1982 and in his Visitation Report commended the work done in the formation houses and the

devotion of those in charge of them. He suggested that a house for scholastics was needed and

that its provision should take priority over other plans. The Province, he thought, had done much

in the way of building and it was now time to give attention to the building of community, not in

the Congregation alone but also in the local church. Parish involvement, a storng faith life, the

spiritual and character-forming element of the moral science programme in the schools, spiritual

and secular studies through the vernacular languages were elements he would emphasise.

Nirmala School, now under Bro. Stephen M. gained recognition as a Junior High and Bro.

Aloysius set up four development projects, dairy farming. a piggery, bee keeping and, for the

women, knitting classes. In March Bro. Bernard took over at Minnaguri following Bro. Dunne's

departure. The school's Class X, the first to take the ICSE examination, retuerned a 100%

result. On 30th June death called Bro. O'Brien from Pune where he had been spending time

with the diocesan Patricians. His body was returned to Coonoor for burial. Building contined to

be a necessary element of life in the Province with palns for an Assembly Hall costing in the

region of ten lakhs at Dehra Dun and the acquisition of twenty-five acres at Trichy for a new

scholasticate. Just before Christmas Delhi and the Province celebrated Bro. Benedict's Silver

Jubilee with impressive ceremonial.

Two young Pune Brothers, Paul K and Antony Randive, made first profession on 24th

June 1983. Binnaguri's st. Patrick's School moved to new premises built with funds from

Misereor, a German Aid Agency. Bro. Bernard became manager and Sr. Lekha Princiapl.

Greatest beneficiaries were probably the children of the Adivasi workers on the tea estates, a

marginalised and impoverished people. Bros. Benedict, Bernard, Alphonsus and Xavier were

guests at the Australian Provine's Centenary Celebration at Sydney in July. The Province

leadership team was reaffirmed in office with Bro. Muldwney replacing the late Ignatius O'Brien.

The Fifth Provincial Chapter in December was an "Open Chapter", membership open to all

Brothers with three or more years of final vows.

On St. Patrick's day 1984 three senior Brothers who had already borne the burden and

heat of the day at Pune dade professions of first vows in the Congregation, Bros. Frabcus

Adgav, Velyil and Patrick Palatty. On 26th May VP. Bernard retured to the more moderate clime

of Ireland to resume his duties as Assistant, General, now more onerous since the death of the

First Assistnat, Bro. Denis Lomasne. Bro. Mathew replaced Bernard at Minnaguri. While on

holiday with relatives Bro. Francis Adhav had been taken ill and hospitalised, returning to his

community at Coonoo on 25th May. Just four days later he suffered a servere heart attack and

lingered for a month, dying on 28th June. In youth an engineer with the Indian Army he had

been a founder member of the Pune Patricians–St. Pattrick is patronsaint of the diocese– and

had worked wherever churches, schools, vonvents and chapels were required. 1984 also saw

the pening of Dehradun's splendid auditorium, (possibly the largest in India) by Mother Teresa.

In October the Superior General again visited and was at Madras when the news of Mrs.

Indira Ghandi's assassination broke. Provision of a house for junior aspirants at Wynad in Kerla

was another step in the process of adaptation. Who in the Ireland of 1808 would have thought

that a religous house in Kerala, India, would have been named for the Bishop of Kildare and

Leighlin? Nor was this all. On 2nd Febrary 1985 the new scholasticate was oepned at Trichy,

the date chosen because of what had occurred at Tullow on that day in 1808 and the

establishment named in honour of a man who came to Ireland in the 5th century. Not as the

Irish might have named it, but in deference to its cultural setting, Patrick Nilyam.

The delegates elected to the Sixteenth General Chapter were Bros. Berchmans,

Benedicts and Abraham, and much preparatory work was done all through 1985 and the early

part of 1986. The Sixth Provincial Chapter made comprehensive submissions and forwarded

lively presentations.

On 17th March 1986 Bro. Patrick Platty made final profession at Madras, the

25th anniversary of his entering the Pune Patricians, and on the same date Archbishop

Padyiara became an affiliated member of the Congregation. A document prepared for the all

chapter whowed that on 30th June the Province had fifty–six professed members, of whom

three (all expatriates) were over sixty–five years, and serventeen in th twenty of twenty-five

age–bracket . At the Chapter Bro. V.P. Bernard was again elected to the Regime. The Province

leadership team announced in August was alphonus, Berchmans, Abraganm Tginas Nykdiwbet

abd Britto. As Principal at St. Michael's Higher Secondary School, Bro. Berchmans conceived

plans for a three–storey block to include an auditorium, classrooms, laboratory, a library and

prayer room. On 21st December Bro. Columba Ritchie died at Meerut, the last of those recruited

in Scotland for the novitate at Rockdale.

Bro. Benedict saw to the rebuilding of the old hall and laboratory wing at Minnaguri and

on 5th March Bro. Aengus Kavanagh chose that place to begin his General Visitation of the

Province, with over 250 pupils crowding the Nirmala School and Bro. Vincent Mavelil in charge

the Education Authority raised it to the status of High School. Bro. Britto and the scholastics at

Trichey took the opportunity to begin evening classes for rural children. Bro. Prasad was chosen

to pen the Province's first Tamil–medium school for Classes VI–VIII in a make-shift thatched

classroom on the Scholasticate grounds at Trichy. He and his assistant, Miss Josephine, had all

of nineteen pupils on opening day 1988, but enrolment soon required that classes move to the

Scholasticate BUILDING. Yet another outreadh began on 18th April when Bros. Christopher

Dawes and Stephen Muttathil flew out for Papua New Guinea to assist the Patrician mission

there.

Bro. V.P. Bernard returned from Ireland for the celebrations marking the centenary of St.

Joseph's, Coonoor. On the opening day Bishop Arul Das James and twenty-four priests

concelebrated the Eucharist before a congregation of two thousand people. Thirty-five students

received the Sacrament of Confirmation. bishops, clergy, Brothers and various groups lighted

100 candles, eveyone was entertained to breakfast, scientific and photographic exhibitions

followed and five thousand turned up for the Prize Distribution presided over by a Government

Minister from Delhi. So ended day one. Pst students took over for day two and on both days the

ceremonies were relayed on closed cricuit television. Bro. Francis and his assistants left

absolutely noting to chance; even having a fire-engine on stand-by should a cooling of

enthusiasm be needed. In honour of the occasion the community placed Rs. 25,000 in a Poor

Children's Found for the education of twenty-five Catholic children and the same amount in a

Servants' Pension Found.

A seminar for superiors and school principals at Delhi took stock of hinghs relating to

community and schol life, and in Noveember a Northern Assembly at Dehradun urged that

inculturation receive more attention in English-medium schools. Bro. V.P. Bernard made use of

his visit to have his newly-devised Curriculum Vitae froms filled in and to review records

generally. He found that only two houses kept a book of community annals and that just one

had a visitor's book. Only the Provincial's secretary recorded items of interest. Stressing the

necessity for a record of local events Bernard urged that each monastery have a record room. A

December seminar on "Wholeness and Integration" preceded a Provincial Chapter which had

some interesting things to say on faith values and community sharing. It also recommended that

aspirants be given the opportunity to study English for at least a year before going to the

juniorate.

Dehra Dun marked Bro. Gannon's Diamond Jubilee on 25th January 1989, clebrating

also the fact that sixty of his seventy-eight years had been given to India. On 28 th new

classroorsm replaced the shed used by the younger pupils at St. Michael's, Adyar, and the

school acquired an open-air theatre. The Second Extended Council sat at Delhi from 2nd -11th

February after which the Superior General went to Austrialia on visitation, leaving behind him a

storng recommendation for consolidation of gains. Delany Bhavan was blessed and opened on

the 30th March and used as a study house for aspirants. A College of Electrors system was used

in the making of recommenddations for a Provincial and Assistants. In August Abraham Variath

became Provincial with Bros. Carroll. Berchmans, Xavier and Britto as his Council. Not being a

Bengali- medium school St. Patrick's at Minnaguri was ineligible for State aid and so had

recourse to the National Institute of Open Schooling, being registered as a Study Centre in 1990

to the great advantage of students unable to proceed beyond elementary level. At New Delhi

staff and Brothers joined with the other schools in a public protest at discrimination against

minorities during a period of public unrest when schools in North India were closed by

Government order. The Provincial represented the Congregation at the celeration marking the

150th anniversary of St. Mary's College, Madras. In September the Novitiate moved from

Clement Twon to Bangalore, three Brothers and seven novices bringing Patrick Nivas into

existence .

In 1991 Trichy's Tamil-medium School became a High School. The Conference of Major

religious superios again directed attention to church teaching on social justice, stating that

religous, as followers of Jesus, could not take a neutral stance on the issue.

The Provincial Chapter in January 1992 devoted attention to areas and policies in need

of reform, to efforts at building Christ-centred communities and to provision of schooling for

working class children and the poor. General Chapter delegates were Alphonsus Thanicken,

Berchmans Athakkad and Jerome Ellens. In Aprial Eugene Dunne closed a half-century of work

in India, resolving to spend his old age in Ireland. At the Chapter Bro. Abraham Variath became

a General Councillor. A Hindi-medium House of Studies was opened at Binnaguri for aspirants

from the north. This and other projects were generously assisted by the Camillian Order and the

Padri Somaschi of Italy. On the 31st December Bro. V.P. Bernard returned from an onerous

twelve-year stint in Ireland, and next day a new administration, consiting of Bros. Berchmans,

Bosco, Xavier, Joseph Carroll, and M.K. Franis, took office.

An early decision of the new administration was to activate long standing plans for a

school near Wynad,a little-developed district of North Kerala with a high percentage of poor

Catholics. A wild rock-strewn multi-cratered site was purchased and Bro. Xavier Thonipara

commissioned to oversee its development. May 31st brought much rejoincing with nine

professions, a record for the Province, at Sacred Heart Church, Coonoor, once the College

Chapel. In June St. James, Binnaguri, was blessed with the coming of M.K Francis as Principal

and the addition of computer science to the curriculum. It is but fair to say that Bro. Alphonsus

had thoroughly prepared the ground for both . On 12th january 1994 Bro. Gannon celebrated

Sixty-five years of Profession and on 1st June Bro. Xavier entered into the fruits of his labour by

opening a school at Mananthvady. He and Bro. Vincent George taught three Junior Classes in

two small buildings left behind by the former owners. Construction of the new school began at

once with a residence for the Brothers to come later. Civil disturbances in the north delayed

centenary celebration at St. George's.

The Ninth Provincial Chapter occupied the period from 9th to 14th January 1995. Eleven

finally professed, four temporary professed and six ex-officio members constituted the

gathering. St. Joseph's Academy, Dehra Dun, had secured accredition to the National Open

Schooling System and had been paying particular attention to religious and moral instruction,

marking Foundation Day, 2nd February, with special ceremonies, including a picnic for Catholic

staff and students . St. George's centenary celebrations took place over three days in April and

included the opening of a new international-standard autitorium. A host of notables attended

and the Irish Ambassador, Mrs. Margaret Hennessy, delivered the formal address and declared

the new auditorium open. It was a pound and wonderful occasion for the Province, the College,

and especially for Bro. Carroll and the organising committee. Later in the year H.E. Dr. Sharma,

President of India, held a Centenary Reception for representatives of St. George's College at

his official residence in the capital .

On 3rd May Bros. Jerome Ellens, Santosh and Dennis were appointed to pioneer an

entirely new venture for the Patricians in India, working in a non-Christian school in a new area.

Jay Jay Jyothi school at Rewa in Central India had been set up by the Jaiprakash Group of

Industries to cater for the children of its employees at two of its cement factories and for local

children. Opened in 1985 with the help of the local bishop and conducte by the Sacred Heart

Sisters until 1994 it had hen been administered by a company trust. Having heard of Mount St.

Mary's, Delhi, the directors applied to the Brothers and, despite certain misgivings, the

application was accepted for an initial term of five years. The opportunity to reach out to the

poor of the area and bear witness to bhe gospel was a deciding factor in acceptance. there

were Hindi-medium and English-medium streams and only a tiny percentage of the enrolment

was catholic. While living conditions for managers, factory workers and Brothers were modern

and comfortable, rural life and stark poverty were at the gates. About 25% of local parents were

illiterate, the children timed and totaly unsophisticated. Active class-work, the co-ordination of

activites, evening games and other involvements soon brought acceptance. The Provincial

administration announced in January 1996 aknist fikkiwed ab ABC oatterbm being Alphonsus,

Bernard, Bosco, Berchmans and Vincent. Bro. Leo Cheruvil began a two-year period of service

in Kenya and remained for a decade. At Mananthavady the first phase of the school building

was occupied and Bros. Paschal and Dennis joined the community. The Superior General, Bro.

Cormac Commins, performed the official opening of Shanti Bhavan (Abode of Peace), formation

centre on 4th October and the Congregational leadership assembled at Mussoorie on 21st for the

Extended Council. Scarcely had the major superios completed their deliberations than the Tenth

Provincial Chapter opened at Chennai, sitting from 28th December to 2nd January.

Mananthavady's English-medium school and staff-block were blessed add opened on 22nd

March 1997 while its High School was able to claim that 62% of its enrolment was Christian.

Trichy's Tamil-medium roll-call exceeded 250 for the first time. St. James's, Brinnaguri,

celebrated twenty-five yars of existence in October with the opeining of a Silver Jubilee Hall and

a student population f 1,442 from KG to Class XII. Its ISC results for forty-seven entrants were

an incredible forty-six First Class grades and one Second Class. The General Chapter

delegates were Bros. Christopher Dawes, Dominic Jacob, Jerome Ellens and Prakash

Mangara.

On1st January 1998 a new leadership took office, Bros Berchmans, Abraham, Bosco,

Christopher and Dominic. On the 4th Bro. Aloysius A. went to his eternal reward aged sixty-two .

He had been one of the postulants recruited by Bro. McEvoy in 1954 and as Superior and

Principal at. St. Patrick's, Adyar, had worked tirelessly to rehabilitate the orphanage buildings.

Perhaps his greatest service to the Province was given in connection with the Nirmala School

and development project in which the energy and enthusiasm of the temporary professed were

used to the full. After thirty years in Indian Bro. Tom Muldowney Joined Leo Cheruvil on

temporary transfer to Kenya, providing a canny brain and a steadying hand on a mission

replicating the Indian experience of the 1960s. On the 25th May the Brothers at Mananthavady

took possession of their new residence and eight days later Coonoor opened its new Delany

Block . That community also formally adopted an experiment inaugurated earlier by Bro. Patrick

Palatty, the vrovision of afternoon classes for poor boys from the neighourbhood.

A true outpost, Rewa was from 1998 manned by Bros. Christopher Dawes and Matthew,

their isolation occasionally lessened by the coming of novies on community experience. Jerome

Ellens, Vicar Genral since the previous year, spent much of 1999 in India, mostly at Bangalore.

A new residence was provided at Meerut, one of many improvemtns marking Bro. Vincent

Mavelil's six-years in charge. A library, staff-room wing, an audio-visual room, a minizoo, a

computer room and a play-school for the junior kindergarten element were amongh the other

provisions. Nro did change end there. His successor, Bro. Paul Kallarachully, was the first to

recommend the appointment of a lay Vice-Principal, and a woman at that. He unmatched

dedication and loyalty rendered Mrs. S. Bhatnagar, senoir staff member, an obvious choice for

the post. Meerut too took up the case of the poorer children, providing evening classes, paper

and books for those who could not otherwise have had formal schooling, Trichy opted for an

industrial training institute, first providing material and labour for the building while hoping for aid

with machinery and tools. Mount St. Mar's, Delhi, also introduced technical calssses. Not to be

outdone in the matter of innovation, the Provincial set in notion a scheme for three Charsm

Retreats during 1999, fisrt at Coonoor, then at Adyar and after Christmas at Meerut. When St.

Patrick's at Mananthavaya was first planned the need for a No Objection Certificate from

Government had been overlooked, resulting in heart-breaking complications later. Immense toil

and energy went into preparation of documents, trave, interviews and long waiting on officials

before the needed certificate was issued in late 1999. That it was issued was in large part due

to the prayers and tasting of Bro. Abraham Variath now retired to a lonely hermitage in the same

area where he ultimatley became the Province's first Swami.

The Jubilee Year, the new millennium, the Superior Geberak abd gus Vicar arrived in

India within twenty-four hours of each other. The latter two brought a Joint approach to the

General Visitation, working to encourage the attainment of set goals travelling together to each

community. Their overnigh journey to Rewa enabled them to share a six-berth compartment

with fifteen other travellers while the train was compelled to make a long detour which delayed

their arrival at Allahabad by five hours . Such the perks of high office in the world of religion!

The Adyar communities joined to celebrate 125 years of Patrician presence on St. Patrick's Day

and marked anniversary and jubille by providing sites to house the workers attached to all hree

institutions. At Trichy a modern building on a new site was provided for the Tamil School. The

Great Jubilee was provided for the Tamil School. The Great Jubilee was crowned for sixty

aspirants, postulants and novices with a gathering at Adyar organised by Bro Lizen over three

days in December.

In February 2001 Bro. Jerome, Vicar General, returned to India and to the novitiate at

Bangalore before taking up work with school staff later they year. At Meerut St. Mary's initiated

a year-long celetration of its dolden Jubilee and St. George's, Mussoorie Commemorated Bro.

Darcy with Everlasting Remembrance, a collection of his verse edited by Bro. Joe Carroll,

illusrated by Bro. Basil and with an introduction written by Ruskin Bond. Trichy's Technical

Training Centre opened for business in three trades while at Adyar the first steps were taken to

cater for the needs of former students of St. Patrick's and St. Michael's in third level arts and

science. This, the beginning of a Patrician College of Arts and Science, was an idea first mooted

during the previous year's anniversary celebration. First to benefit were 155 students from St.

Michael's Academy under the directorship of Br. Stanislaus Arulsusai. The Congregation's

Extended Council met at Manathavady during September. A countesy call to the Provincialate

by Gneral Sebastain, a former Patrician now in charge of the army base at Pune, led to the

revival of the proposal, dropped several year years earlier, for a chool there. At Meerut Mr. C.

Joseph, a member of the Academy staff from opening day and a Patricain affiliate from 1985,

died on 6th March. Though officially retired he had continued to serve the school in a myriad of

ways as a loyal and devoted servant and a trusted assistant. Responding to a request from the

Bishop of Trichy the Province acquired twenty-eight acres at Dindigul for a matriculation school.

At St. George's the Principal and a committee of seven students moved to assist the tots of

Chamasari village. These children trudged each day the eight kilometres to and from the

Nirmala School. The result was a junior primary in their village, appropriately named Gyan Jhoti

or Light of Knowledge School. The same Student Social Action Committee, aware that an empty

sack cannot stand, began a midday-meal project for Nirmala pupils who otherwise would not

have had anything to eat during the school day. It had become province policy that each

community and each Brother undertook some from of outreach to the poor and marginalised of

the neighbourhood. Actuated by the same principle the Superior General opened a new

residence for the Delhi community! Jubilees abounded in 2003, beginning with St. Michael's,

Adyar. Not every fifty-year old institution can claim to have taken root under a tree. Nirmala

followd in June and Manor House in October with one undred and fifty years to its credit.

Hundreds of former students gathered, a memorial park wa inaugurated complete with a statue

of St. George and his dragon. Parents and former students from Nepal presented the College

with an outdoor Nepalese bell, mounted in traditional fashion. At Coonoor Bro.Patcik Palatty's

Night Shlter for the Homeless already in need of extension was formally adopted by the

community which also provided aid for a new kindergarten school at Dindigual. At that place

forty pupils were taught by two lady teachers using two classrooms, a staff-room and an office in

the Brother's house. With Jay Jyothi School fully developed and running smoothely it was

handed back to the Company Trust, its owners, with two years still to run on the Brothers

contract, Connection with Rewa then ended. A new novitiate building was opened at Bangalore

on 1st June.

A library and computer laroratory wing was brought into use at St. Patrick's,

Mananthavady. Trichy's Technical Training Centre, which had over the year directed its efforts

to assisting those who had dropped out of education, was accorded recognition by the National

Institute of Open Schooling. On 17th July the Foundation store for a new English-medium

school was blessed and laid at pune, with retired Major General Seastian to oversee building in

the absence of a patrician community. As with other place a vernacular school would follow. A

get-together for aspirants and postulants took place at Adyar from 30th October. St. James's

English-medium School at Binnaguri achieved the distinction, rare for a secondary school, of

connection with the Indira Ghandi National Open University, an immense boon to the young

people of the north-west who now had a degree college close to hand. A Bengali State Proposal

for withdrawal of certain financial supports from all schools was appealed to the courts. An

extension to cater for homeless woment was blessed and opened at Coonoor's Karunai Illam on

21st March 2004, the institution's sixth anniversary. Four the eight successive year St. Patrick's,

Trichy, had 100% examination success while its infant neighbour at Dindigual was growing

prodigiously. From an initial enrolment of 41 it had mushroomed to 350 with Bro. Francis

seeking new ways of syaing "No." To ease his problems construction of a new school building

began on 11th July. Mussoorie's Gyan Jyothi school at Chamasari village, rendered redundant

by the opening of a State primary school, moved three kilometers to Basaura where it operated

in a single room givn rent free by a benefactor. On July 2nd thirty-two small children and three

teachers moved into the partially completed building at Pune under the kindly supervision of

Genral Sebastain. Bro Berchmans, Provincial, and eight delegates attended the 19th General

Champter at Kamagut in Kenya and Bro. Jerome Ellens, Vicar General since 1998, became the

Congregation's first India-born Superior General. On the 27th September H.E. Dr. Kalam,

Presedent of India, visited St. George's College, and spent ninety minutes instead of the

scheduled thirty in vonverse with staff and students. The College further extended its largesse

to the children of Kerala by sponsoring the building of a school near the twon of Angamaly. In

the wake of the tsunami of 26th December the second year novices went to the assistance of the

victims at Muttom in Tamilnadu.

The new Province Adminstration headed by Bro. Christopher Dawes took office on New

Year's Day 2005, inheriting from its predesessor projects for English and Hindi-medium schools

for tribal peoples about Janakpur in the newly-constituted state of Chattisgargh. Bro. Anthony C

was already project-manager and from 2nd February would be assisted by Bro. Joachim Guria.

Two others, Paul K and Chris Gnanaraj were to reconstitute the Patrician presence at Pune. On

the 25th May the new St. Patrick's Academy at Angamaly was blessed and classes opened on

1st June with 500 students and 23 teachers. Bro. Sebastain T. was Princiapl with Bro. Joseph at

his right.hadn side. Forty-three spacious classrooms for 2,000 students, a library, computer and

science laboratories and twenty-four acres of grounds were among the amentities. Ninety-five

per cent of the school population was Christain, the majority Roman Catholic . Twelve days of

retreat-cum-seminars were organised for temporary professed at Coonoor and in August Bro.

Leo Cheruvil returned from his labours in Kenya. In tribute to its War Dead St. George's College

erected a memorial having as backdrop a MIG fighter plane which first saw service with the

Repulic's Air Force in 1975. Outreach efforts continued in the shape of evening classes at

Meerut and Delhi with Dehra Dun sponsoring two local State schools. Five hundred students

availed of the Open University Centre at Binnaguri while St. James's provided a mid-day meal

for the pupils at St. Patrick's. In the Province's most recent venture, Janakpur, Bros. Joachim

and Anthony were occupied in a Hindi-medium school owned by the diocese with the option of a

take –over later . In early December the postulants moved from Adyar to Bangalore and the

former juniorate became part of the College of Arts and Science with a Daniel Delany Digital

Media Centre to meet the needs of the Visual Communications Course. To formulate policy on

these many activities the Twelfth procincial chapter met at Bangalore. Open to all finally

professed Brothers and with six elected temporary professed it debated over four days with

forty-six Brothers in attendance.

Tom Muldowney, after seven years in Kenya, where he was prodigal of time, talents and

energy, returned to his Province in early January 2006 and was posted to Mussoorie. The

birthday celebration organised for Bro. Gannon on 31st January far outdid that gotten up for his

twenty-first at Rockdale. Two bishops (one a former pupil) and five priests concelebrated the

Liturgy; Brothers, friends and acquaintances offered gifts and congratulations. It transpired that

of his 77 years in the Institute he had given 72 to the Indian Province. Another begining was

marked at Pune when on 26th March the school and the Brothers' residence were blessed and

opened. About the same time Mananthadavy's St. Patrick's was making application for a

Bachelor of Education College to serve its 1,300 students and others. In April the Trichy

Technical Centre moved to a new and separate building in which to pursue its crusade for

shose preferring manual to literary pursuits. Mathematical, scientific and literary pursuits were

close to the heart of young Mr. G. Guptu, a Meerut student, who achieved a 98% plus mark in

the Indian School Leaving Certificate Examination that year.

Life begins at sixty-plus, at least for the generous, a consideration which moved Bros. Benedict

and Alphonsus to join the Los Angeles communities on a two-year loan during which they would

assist in the outreach work of the local communities. Bakshish Singh, a convert to Catholicism

from 1977, and efficient secretary to four successive Provincia,s went to his eternal reward on

the night of 15th August. Bro. John Kampyil followed on 9th November. Coming to the

Congregation from a diocesan congregation at Jhansi he spent many years in formation work

and transferred to St. Patrick's, Adyar, only a year before his death. On Ist December President

Abdul Kalam presented St. Joseph's Academy, Dehradun, with the National Computer Literacy

Award for 2004. At Manendergarh in north-west Chattisgarh Bros. Antony Chattampadathil and

Joachim Gura conducted a Hindi-medium Secondary School for the diocese and an English-

medium Primary School. Can you guess the name of either establishment? Daniel Delany

Secondary School and St. Patrick's Academy! Further honours hese for a French-educated

eighteenth-century bishop and a fifth-century Romanised Briton, each of whom spent himself on

a little-known island in the western Atlantic and on the edge of civilisation.

The Manendergarh school from part of the Provine's bicentenary project, an attempt to aid the

poor in a concrete way. This tribal belt needs many things, good schools among them . The

Brothers hope to upgrade the Hindi-medium School, while upporting it by means of the other.

With just 2 pupils in Class IX and only 37 in Kindergarten and Class I in the Primary there is

hard pioneering work ahead in this remote and under-developed area. So it was at the

beginning in Ireland, and at each of the Indian foundations in turn. For the 61 Brothers gathered

for Bro. K.T. Pius' Golden Jubilee on 16th January 2007 there was joy and hope in plenty. So

also at Mussoorie on the same date; first, a wonderful new road past the school door had

replaced the rutted track across Fox Hil. Second, the school had liad down a new basktball

court. Third, a bust of Bro. A. Aloysius, Nirmala's second founder, was blessed and univeiled

that day. Fourth, it was the fortieth anniversary of Bro. Vincent Mavelil's religous profession and

Vincent is the school's Principal. He has seen the school grow to cater for the poor children of

eight villages and for those of 4th class employees at the great boarding schools of the hills.

Though from the lower brackets of society its pupils have achieved rank and status in the armed

forces, the police and in the departments of government. Some 260 pupils continue to need the

free lunch supplied daily by the staff and students at St. Geroge's and that College also pays

the salaries of teachers not recognised by the Government.

The Tamil-medium school at Trichy progressed from thatched shed to higher Secondary Shool

and from 18 to 816 pupils early in 2007 just when St. Patrick's at Adyar was replacing its

Province leadership was invited to provide three brothers for a new venture in West Africa. It

agreed and found no lack of voluntrres and on 31st July Bros.Prakash Mangara and Thomas

Kuzumbail Arrived in Ghana to work in the Diocese of Sunyani. Bro. Jayaseelan Savarimuthu,

joined them a few weeks later. An adventure, we hoe, worthy of the Institute's bicentenary year.

"Hope is the acceptance of the mystery that is unfolding in our lives."

Carlos A. Costa, OP, in Religous Life Review, Vol. 44, No. 238 (Nov.-Dec 2005)

Being aware of (the other's) feelings, rather than working our a positon rationally, is at the heart

of emotional sustenance . (The Tablet, 15th March 1990 Quoted by Bro. A.J. Kavanagh, in

"Failures in Love") , General Newsletter, Jan 1991)

From now on you are no longer alone. In all things you must take your Brothers into account.

(Rule of Taize)

Refuse to connive in vulgarity. Certain jokes fan the difficulties of those striving for purity of

heart.

Brothers have much to offer, and much to gain, in a close identification with the local Churech.

(Third Extended Council, Sydne, March 1991)

Bro. Carthage Martin keely Bron at Killabeg Coolkenna, co. Wicklow 18th April 1906. Entered

13th October 1921. First profrssion 2nd May 1923. Sailed for IndiaMarch 1925. Final profession

24th December 1927. Died at Mount St. joseph, tullow, 5th February 1990.

There were not many people equipped like Carthage keely to combine genuine charity with an

absolute disregard for the impeding conventions and niceties of society. I remember a June

evening at Lahore when Carthage emerged, pipe in the mouth, driving the big red bus onto

Lawrence Road, and down the Mall, bringing Eddie Stringers pregnant wife to hospital. Bro.

Richie, a staid Scotsman and our. Unsentimental superpior, showed his disapproval with an

expectoration onto the summer dust. Bro. keely was a great friend to have, as joe Rigby, a loyal

techer in one of our schools, learned when he becameat St.Fidelis when he held a noble parsi

youth in his arms as the the boys life-blood ebbed away following a vicious stabbing attack.

He had that special gift of inspiring trust, and was the confidant of a strangely assorted group of

individuals that included Begum Iftikar Uddin from a distinguished Muslim family in the Punjab to

gentle William who swept the toilets at Madras. He did not need seminars on the option for poor.

It came to him naturally.

His active service was given in India and Pakistan. Like most of his generation, he was thrown

in the deep end with a minimum of preparation. When he joined the staff of St.Georges College,

Mussoorie, he was entering a system of education vastly superior to anything he had know-a

culture shock in reverse. Certainly he was impressed with equipped laboratories, the piano

stalls, the telescope, the swimming pool, the well-stocked armoury and the rifle ranges across

the deep ravines below Foxhill. Carthage, however, had two useful weapons in his own

armoury. A dedicated student, he had a love of teaching and great rapport with boys.

St.Georges College at that time had a truly prestigious name sharing with the Christian Brothers

and Jesuits schools in Nainital and Darjelling the reputation of being the three outstanding

Catholic Hill Schools in India. Mussorie alone had some eight highly regarded European and

American type boarding schools, eaxh on its Himalayan peak, and each staffed by impressive

teams of Anglo Indian and highly qualified Indian graduates. Into this milieu walked Bro. Keely

with his meager qualifications and his limited experience. By earnest effort and patient study

Carthage was destined to become something of an erudite scholar. For many tears he

confidently taught all subjects for Senior Cambridge except the Sciences and Indian languages.

He was a very effective English writer and collaborated with Dr.Vann, Archbishop of Agra, in

important translation work. HE had a sound knowledge of Hindi and Urdu and a working

acquaintance with Tamil. His grasp of history and political science was quite remarkable. When

the gloom of Communism was very deep in the 1950 I remember his accurate prediction of the

developments that occurred three decades later.

Following one furlough in Ireland, most of spent at University College, Galway, came 20 years

at Mussoorie. St. Fidelis was founded as a military orphanage for the Catholic children of Irish

regiments such as the Connaught Rangers and the Inniskilling Fusiliers, boys whose fathers

bones had strewn the battle fields from the Kyber pass to Burmas jungles . A great personal

friend, guru and guide to him during those years was Bro. George Masterson, a man having the

same military background, a patrician Brother par excellenge. There were shorter periods at

Madras commitment was possibly his least pleasant assignment. Bro. Enda carroll and an

orphan boy he was nursing died from typhoid in the appalling conditions at Coimbatore when

the orphanage moved ther before the theart of Coimbatore when the orphanage moved there

before the responsibility of Japanese invasion. On Br. Keelys shoulders fell the responsibility of

rehabilitating 250 orphans on their return to Adtar in 1946 where the military had reduced the

premises to a shambles.

The remainder of Carthages sojourn on the sub continent was spent at Lahore. He went there

shortly after partition, when signs of the carnage that accompanied that event were abundantly

evident. He was asked to assume the Principlship of St.Anthonts in 1966 when the war of the

province for the two nations. It was a daunting task to assume management of a huge and

diverse institution in the absence of the provincial props he had been accustomed to work with.

He was also in indifferernt health but struggled manfully while continuing to make passionate

pleas for the manpower to maintain a Patrician presence in a Lahore which he came to love.

The higher authorities considered the position was no longer tenable and a glorious chapter of

the Brothers involvement with education in the Punjas ended in 1980.